' ^^Q^i^Z^^t^QH^ , 



i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 





UNITED STATE 




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Cucr/u. 



BEAat;5y^|j.;^T>IENT. 




MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

ON THE /^V^*^--"^^ 

Life and Charactei^ 

OF 

Alpheus S.Williams, 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM MICHIGAN,) 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND IN THE SENATE, 
{/.G, FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION. 



^s^5-T3~\.a-j^ 



«-v- Ci ■'fv&Jiit 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 



1 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1880. 






FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION. 

Congress of the United States, 
In the House of Representatives, February 27, 1879. 
Resolved by the House of Beprescntatives {the Senate concurring). That there be 
printed twelve thousand copies of the memorial addresses delivered in the Senate 
and House of Representatives upon the life and character of the late Alpheus S. 
Williams, late a Representative from the State of Michigan, of which nine thou- 
sand shall be for the use of the House and three thousand for the use of the 
Senate. 
Attest : 

GEO. M. ADAMS, Clerk. 



AN ACT providing for the engraving and printing of portraits to accompany memorial 
addresses on the late Representatives Leonard, Quiun, Welch, Williams, Douglas, Hart- 
ridge, and Schleicher. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is 
hereby, authorized and directed to cause to be engraved and printed portraits of the 
late Representatives Leonard, Quinn, Welch, Williams, Douglas, Hartridge, and 
Schleicher, to accompany memorial addresses delivered in the Senate and House 
of Representatives in honor of the said deceased Representatives, and to defray the 
expenses thereof the necessary sum is hereby appropriated out of any money in 
the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, such sum to be immediately available. 

Approved, March 3, 1879. 



ADDRESSES 



Death of Alpheus S. Williams, 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



January 6, 1879, 
Mr. HuBBELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to perform one of the most 
melancholy duties which has fallen to my lot since my entrance into 
public Hfe. It is to announce the death of my late colleague, Hon. 
Alpheus S. Williams, of Michigan, At some future time I shall 
give notice when appropriate resolutions of eulogy will be submitted 
for the action of the House. I offer now the following : 

Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret of the death 
of Hon. Alpheus S. Williams, a Representative from the State of 
Michigan. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased 
this House do now adjourn. 

The Speaker. The Chair will submit the question on these reso- 
lutions. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted; and in accordance 
therewith the House (at three o'clock p. m.) adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



January 7, 1879. 
The Speaker, by unanimous consent, laid before the House the 
following letter from the secretary of the District of Columbia, trans- 
mitting a copy of the order adopted by the Commissioners of the 
District of Columbia respecting the late Hon. A. S. Williams; which 
was laid on the table and ordered to be printed : 

Office of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, 

WashingtoHi December 23, 1878. 

Sir : I am directed by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to inclose 
to you the accompanying copy of their order of this date respecting the late Hon. 
A. S. Williams, chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, House of 
Representatives. 

Very repectfully, 

WILLIAM TINDALL, 

Secretary. 
Hon. Samuel J. Randall, 

Speaker of the Hotcse of Representatives, United States, 

Office of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, 

Washington, December 23, 1878. 

As a just tribute to the memory of the Hon. Alpheus S. Williams, late a 
Representative of the State of Michigan in the Congress of the United States, and 
chairman of the Committee of the House of Representatives on the District of Co- 
lumbia, who expired in this city on the 2ist instant, the Commissioners deem it fit, 
on behalf of the people of the District, to put upon their minutes the following 
order : 

That the citizens of the District of Columbia hold in grateful remembrance the 
just, generous, and patiotic consideration extended at all times by General Will- 
iams, as chairman of the District Committee, to the best interests of this District, 
and his kind and graceful courtesy to its citizens. His career as a soldier and civil- 
ian is part of the history of his country; his many private virtues are the consoling 
heritage of his family and friends. 

That the secretary be directed to transmit a copy of this order to the family of the 
deceased and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

By order of the Board. 

S. L. PHELPS, 

President. 

William Tindall, 

Secretary. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



February 19, 1879. 

Mr. HuBBELL. On the 6th instant I gave notice that at some future 
time I should ask the House to Usten to the eulogies on my late col- 
league, General A S. Williams. I now ask unanimous consent that 
there be a session to-morrow evening at seven o'clock and thirty min- 
utes for that purpose. 

There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 



February 20, 1879. 
Mr. Hubbell. I offer the resolutions which I send to the desk. 
The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret of the death 
of Hon. Alpheus S. Williams, a member of this House from the 
State of Michigan. 

Fesolved, That as a testimony of respect to his memory the officers 
and members of this House will wear the usual badge of mourning 
for the space of thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the 
Clerk of this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of 
these proceedings to the Senate, and that as a further mark of respect 
to the memory of the deceased this House do now adjourn. 



ADDRESS OF MR. HUBBELL ON THE 



Addp^ss of Mr. ^^Iubbell, of ^ichigan. 

Mr. Speaker : I rise to perform a solemn and painful duty ; to 
announce the death and pay a humble tribute of respect to the mem- 
ory of my late colleague, Hon. Alpheus S. Williams, who died at 
his residence in this city on Saturday, the 20th day of December 
last. 

Time will not permit, nor am I competent to the task of pro- 
nouncing a fitting eulogy on the life and character of this most dis- 
tinguished citizen of my native State ; and I shall therefore content 
myself with a very imperfect sketch of his life and public services, 
with the hope that some one more ready in speech than I may fitly 
commemorate his character and virtues. 

Alpheus S. Williams was born at Saybrook, Connecticut, Sep- 
tember 20, 1810. On both father's and mother's side he came from 
the good old Puritan stock. The Starkeys, the Williamses, and the 
Pratts (among the earliest settlers of Saybrook) were men of note in 
the early days of the colonies. 

In 1827 he entered Yale College, and after graduating studied law 
under the venerable Judge Daggett. Fond of travel, he visited 
every State in the Union, extending his journeys to the then Mexi- 
can province of Texas. In 1834 he traveled through Europe in 
company with his early friend, the late tragedian, Edwin Forrest, 
until the summer of 1836, when he settled in Detroit, Michigan, of 
which State he continued a resident until his death. 

As judge of probate for four years, as one of the city council, as 
editor of the Detroit Advertiser (now the Daily Post and Tribune), 
he was usefully and honorably connected with civic affairs until 1847, 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 7 

when he went to Mexico with the First Michigan Volunteers as Ueu- 
tenant-colonel of that regiment, and served with distinction from 
Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico. Returning home he was made 
major-general of ths State militia. 

From 1849 to 1853 he was postmaster of the city of Detroit, and 
a member of the State board of education from 1856 to 1857. Dur- 
ing all this time his connection with the old Brady Guards, and after- 
ward the Light Guards, of Detroit, not only evidenced his love of 
and aptitude for military affairs, but helped to educate many brave 
men who, in their turn, when the war of the rebellion broke out, 
aided to educate and lead the Michigan regiments that went to the 
field. In 1 86 1 he was commissioned as brigadier-general and took 
command in the Shenandoah campaign, succeeding General Banks as 
commander of the Twelfth Army Corps. His masterly retreat dur- 
ing that Virginia campaign takes rank as one of the noteworthy inci- 
dents of the war. History has chronicled his achievements as com- 
mander of the Twelfth Corps in the bloody battles of South Mount- 
ain, Antietam, and Gettysburgh, and also when in command of a 
division of the Twentieth Army Corps in that famous campaign which 
ended in the capture of Atlanta, that memorable campaign of "a 
hundred days under fire." In this campaign his corps was the first 
to enter Atlanta and was placed in charge of the city. 

In the famous march from Atlanta to the sea he was a trusted com- 
mander, and it was upon his wisdom, prudence, and forethought that 
the great leader of that historic expedition largely depended ; and it 
was due as much to his soldierly genius as to that of any other one 
man that the campaign was finally brought to a successful and glo- 
rious termination. He was among the first to enter Savannah, and 
on his march from that city to Goldsborough did some of the hard- 
est fighting of the campaign. 

After participating in the grand review in Washington at the close 
of the war, he was sent to Gainesville, Kentucky, and afterwards 



placed in command of a military district in Arkansas, where his genius 
for affairs served to bring order out of chaos and to restore the society 
of that region to its normal condition. In June, 1866, he was hon- 
orably discharged from the Army. 

I have thus briefly epitomized a military career to which volumes 
might be devoted, and which history must record as among the most 
glorious of that immortal few whose achievements fill the brightest 
pages of American history. Throughout his long and arduous serv- 
ice, which began with the beginning of the war and ended only when 
the final surrender was made, he never was taken' by surprise, lost a 
battle, or suffered a defeat. The estimation in which he was held by 
his companions in arms cannot be better illustrated than by reading 
a letter addressed by the General of the Army to Major Farquhar, 
son-in-law of General Williams, on the occasion of the latter's 
death : 

Headquarters, United States Army, 

Washington, D. C, December 22, 1878. 
Dear Major : I am just returned from attending the funeral of your father-in- 
law, General Alpheus S. Williams, member of Congress, of Michigan, where I 
met his daughter, Mrs. Chittenden, and his son, as also Mr. Chittenden and other 
friends and a committee of the House of Representatives, who will accompany his 
remains to his home at Detroit. We of the military did all we could to manifest 
the great respect we had for his character as an officer by ordering all the soldiers 
now near Washington to attend as a guard of honor from his rooms to the train 
which bears his body to its final resting-place in Detroit, and I also personally 
attended with every member of my staff in uniform. But this does not complete 
the debt I owe to General Williams as a soldier and a patriot ; and to you, his 
sonin-law, I venture to do more, because you as a soldier appreciate the feelings 
appropriate to the occasion. I will have prepared, engrossed on parchment for his 
family, the official record of his service in the Mexican war and of that greater 
war of a national salvation in which General Williams bore so conspicuous and 
manly a part. This military record may seem to you and to his family too formal, 
too short to compass a life which spanned sixty-eight of the most eventful years 
of the world's history, and may sound too much like Hamlet's moralizing on Alex- 
ander: "Alexander died; Alexander was buried ; Alexander returned unto dust." 
And as I know full well that the feelings of those nearest him demand something 
more personal, more specific, I must, at the risk of being officious, write you more 
of my own personal thoughts and appreciation. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 



General Williams commanded a division of the Twelfth Corps, which was sent 
so rapidly from the East to Tennessee under General Hooker to re-enforce the 
Army of the Cumberland after the battle of Chickamauga. I myself at that time 
was hurrying for the same object, from Memphis, with the Army of the Tennessee. 
The great battle was fought at Chattanooga, and then were made the combinations 
for the final critical campaign of our civil war. The Eleventh and Twelfth Corps 
were consolidated into the Twentieth Corps, commanded by General Hooker, with 
General A. S. Williams commanding the first division of that corps, and the 
senior division commander in that corps. In May, 1864, 1 succeeded General U. S. 
Grant in command of the grand army designed to advance into the enemy's country 
from that quarter, and was most fortunate in my command in having such men as 
Williams in command of the fighting divisions. Up to that date we were abso- 
lute strangers, but my personal acquaintance then began and ripened into a friend- 
ship which was close and mutual to the day of his death. To recount his services 
during the eventful years of 1864 and 1S65 would require a minute history of all 
the operations of that army, for General Williams participated in every movement 
and every battle from Chattanooga till the close of the war, always in command of 
a division, and of his whole corps on the capture of Atlanta, and up to Goldsbor- 
ough. North Carolina, a period of eight months ; always most active and eminently 
qualified by nature and experience. He had the love and respect of his command 
eminent degree, and like his prototype, General Thomas, the soldiers styled him 
"Pap Williams." 

Though eminently an officer of action, he had the patience and affability of 
manners which won the love and veneration of his men. Frequently in our long, 
weary marches I rode by his side, and was often delighted with his cheerful dis- 
position and love of wit. On one occasion he told me that in a certain Wisconsin 
regiment of his were some Winnebago Indians ; that in passing the regiment he 
inquired of one of them what he thought of our march below Atlanta into Georgia. 
" Ugh, a big hunt," was the reply. At a later day, after we had passed Richmond, 
Virginia, I found General Williams dismounted in a clover-field. He had 
gathered in his hand a cluster of the white-clover blossoms of early spring (May, 
1865), and holding it up to me, he said : "Thank God, we have got back to a land 
of civilization." I inquired wherefore, and he said: "You can't have civilization 
without good milk, and you can't have good milk without white clover." 

I am sure that his staff officers and his soldiers will supply his family with many 
testimonials of tlieir love for him ; and the purpose of this letter is to assure you 
and those who will treasure his memory tliat, apart from the consideration and 
respect we all feel for the general, he held a surer place in our hearts and affection. 
Our numbers are growing less daily, and soon the names and fame of the actors in 
the great drama of our civil war must pass into the keeping of younger men like 
yourself; and I bid you to remember that your children are those of General 
Alpheus S. Williams, who offered his precious life and his great abilities to 
I'escue from the greatest possible danger the precious legacy of a government de- 
signed for tlieir honor and safety ; and I trust that you will tell them of his glori- 



2 WS 



ADDRESS OF MR. HUBBELL ON THE 



ous career and associations and make his example to them a shining light which 
will lead them to imitate his virtues. 

Now that he is among the dead, the best of his surviving comrades will labor 
that his kindly nature, coupled with his heroic action in battle, shall be known and 
appreciated. 

Truly, your friend, 

W. T. SHERMAN, General. 
Major Francis U. Farquhar, 

United States Engineers, Rock Island, Illinois. 

All who knew him as a soldier bear testimony to the truth of the 
estimate thus placed upon his character by the great general whose 
glory he shared. All his companions in arms, whether officers or 
soldiers, bear uniform testimony to the geniality and kindness of his 
nature, as manifested by his uniform courtesy to his equals, and the 
loving and fatherly care which he ever took of his inferiors in rank. 
He held no stilted command nor plumed himself upon the dignity of 
his position. At the camp-fire and on the march, at the mess and on 
the battle-field, to his staff and to his soldiers, he was the valued com- 
rade as well as the chief, always mindful of their wants, and guard- 
ing them from needless exposure and danger. His men loved him 
with a constant, unvarying affection, and trusted him with never- 
failing confidence. They knew him to be as sagacious as he was 
brave, as cautious as he was bold, as wise in council as he was gal- 
lant in action. He bore his high command with the modesty of a true 
soldier and the ability of a great general. He possessed that won- 
derful prescience that is the inspiration of the soldier born to com- 
mand; in action he was quick, prompt, and energetic, and he pos- 
sessed the rare soldierly qualities that enabled him to hold a great 
army as well in hand as he did a division or a corps, and that still 
rarer faculty or instinct which never failed him in his choice of men 
for positions of trust and responsibility. 

When his country no longer needed his military services he retired 
to his beautiful home in Detroit, and there, surrounded by a grateful 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 



and loving people, whose patriot soldiers he had educated and led to 
glory and renown, he was well content to pass the remainder of his 
days in private life. But it was otherwise ordered. A few months 
later he was called upon by President Johnson to act as one of the 
commissioners to examine the war claims of the State of Missouri, 
and in the autumn of that year he was appointed minister resident 
to Salvador, where he resided during the three succeeding years. 
Returning home in December, 1869, he again sought the rest from 
official labor which his long and faithful service entitled him to ex- 
pect; but in 1874 his fellow-citizens again called upon him to enter 
their service, and in the autumn of that year he was elected to a seat 
in this House. 

Of his record in this body it is scarcely necessary for me to speak. 
All will bear swift witness to his unswerving fidelity to public trusts, 
his zealous regard for the interests of his constituents, and above all 
to his enlarged and statesmanlike views and lofty patriotism, which 
refused to be bound by the shackles of party or circumscribed by geo- 
graphical lines. As a member of the Military Committee during the 
first term of his service he devoted himself to the interests of the 
soldier, and aided in framing wise statutes calculated to place the 
Army upon a just and honorable footing. 

As chairman of the Committee for the District of Columbia he 
brought order out of confusion and honesty out of corruption. No 
man's gold stained his hand. No rings shackled his feet. He 
brought to the arduous duties of that position a simplicity of pur- 
pose that was transparent, a fidelity to duty that was unswerving, an 
enlarged understanding that enabled him to comprehend the neces- 
sities of the District, and a practical ability that enabled him to meet 
those necessities by wise legislation. 

As to his personal qualities as developed in his intercourse with his 
fellow-members, all will bear loving testimony to the gentle amenities 
which characterized his daily walk and conversation. 



ADDRESS OF MR. HUBBELL ON THE 



Strong as were his convictions, and firm as he was of purpose, he 
never gave offense to those with whom he differed. 

He was ambitious ; but his ambition was not of the sort which 
prompted him to strive to attain other and higher positions than 
those allotted to him. It always made him strive to his utmost, and 
with becoming modesty, to fill all the requirements of the different 
positions which he occupied. His motto was to always and conscien- 
tiously do his whole duty ; and it made no difference whether he was 
occupying the editor's chair, drilling his old Light Guards in the city 
of his adoption, or commanding a company, a r-egiment, a division, 
or an army corps, or still later serving his constituents in these halls, 
the man never did live and does not now live who had said or who 
will ever dare to say that Alpheus S. Williams failed to fearlessly 
perform his whole duty as he saw it, and without hope of reward. 

It is fitting, then, that the virtues of such a man should be com- 
memorated m this presence and with becoming ceremonies. 

As a gentleman of fine culture and presence, as a private citizen of 
liberal views, imbued with that public spirit which always prompted 
him to devote to the welfare of his adopted city and State and to the 
well-being of his fellow-citizens a large share of his time and means ; 
as a journalist, adorning a noble calling with talent and genius and 
with that native instinct for fair play which made him friends on 
every side, and disarmed his adversaries ; as a legislator and states- 
man always daring to advocate the right and to maintain it by his 
vote, notwithstanding party ties, and without fear of the lash of 
party caucuses ; and as a citizen soldier, cool in judgment amid the 
din and horrors of the deadly conflict, brave in battle, but generous 
in the hour of victory, his was a model character and worthy of 
imitation by the young men of the land. 

Mr. Speaker, I had the honor, by your appointment, to be a 
member of the committee whose melancholy duty it was to bear the 
remains of our dead friend to the mourning city and State of his 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 13 



adoption, and to deposit his ashes in their final resting-place. We 
have performed the sad duty. We found the great city clad in the 
habihments of mourning and every preparation made to do honor to 
the illustrious dead. But how weak was the expression of these 
outward symbols of woe compared with tears of heartful sorrow 
which flowed unrestrained down the cheeks of thousands who in 
his death sustained a personal bereavement ! It was a wild, bleak 
December day when we laid him to rest. But neither the biting 
cold nor the howling tempest prevented that sorrowing people from 
turning out eti masse and paying the last tribute of respect to their 
dead friend. 

Amid the quiet shades of the beautiful cemetery, surrounded by 
the forms of the loved ones who had gone before, he sleeps his last 
sleep while the tall pines which wave around him chant the sad 
requiem of the illustrious dead. Peace to his ashes, and fresh in the 
memory of a grateful people remain his many virtues. 



^DDI^SS OF yVLR. ^ANNING, OF DhIO. 

Mr. Speaker: Alpheus Starkey Williams, to honor whose 
memory we are here assembled to-day, was one of the remarkable 
men of his time. Born at Saybrook, Connecticut, September 20, 
1810, he departed this life at his post of duty at the national capital 
December 21, 1878, having attained the advanced age of sixty-eight 
years and three months. 

Entering Yale College at the age of seventeen, he graduated with 
great credit in 1831, and pursued and completed the study of the 
law at the school attached to his alma mater. 

Having thus laid at an early age broad and deep the foundation of 
culture and knowledge, he went abroad for two years, enriching his 
mind and enlarging his experience by travel in Europe. 



14 ADDRESS OF MR. BANNING ON THE 

On his return in 1836 he removed to the Territory of Michigan, 
settling at the city of Detroit, where he resided until the day of his 
decease. 

Continuing the practice of his profession until 1840, he was in that 
year called to the bench, serving as judge of probate until 1844. 

In 1843 he was chosen to represent his ward in the board of alder- 
men, and in 1844 was elected recorder of Detroit. Meanwhile in 
1843 he had become proprietor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser, 
which he edited for five years. When the Mexican war broke out 
General Williams tendered his services to th-e government and 
served with great distinction as lieutenant-colonel of the First Regi- 
ment of Michigan Volunteers. In 1849 he was appointed postmas- 
ter of Detroit by President Taylor, and continued to hold that office 
during Mr. Fillmore's administration. In 1856 he was appointed a 
member of the Detroit board of education. In all these positions 
Generals Williams acquitted himself with credit and honor, winning 
the applause, esteem, and affection of his fellow-citizens. But, Mr. 
Speaker, however great and substantial were these achievements of 
our late colleague, they seem to have been but a training-school 
which was to fit him for those imperishable deeds which won for him 
a national reputation that will live as long as the traditions of the 
great republic which he helped to extend and to perpetuate. 

When the late civil war began General Williams was more than 
fifty years of age, and might well have been spared the hardships and 
vicissitudes of the field. The thought of shirking duty or danger 
never entered his mind. At the very outset he was appointed major- 
general of the Michigan militia and president of the State military 
board, organizing the volunteers from that State and preparing them 
for active service. In August, 1861, he was appointed brigadier- 
general of volunteers by President Lincoln and assigned to duty on 
the Upper Potomac. 

Subsequently he joined the Army of the Potomac, in which he com- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 15 

manded the Twelfth Army Corps at South Mountain, Antietam, and 
Gettysburg. Transferred to the Southwest in 1863, he commanded 
the Twentieth Corps at the siege of Atlanta and during the campaign 
in Georgia and the Carolinas, being mustered out of service January, 
1866. 

In August, 1866, he was appointed one of the commissioners to 
adjust the military claims of tha State of Missouri, and in the fall of 
the same year was the candidate of the Democratic party for gov- 
ernor of Michigan. From December, 1866, to the end of President 
Johnson's administration he served as minister to the RepubHc of 
San Salvador. He was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress from 
the Detroit district, and re-elected to the Forty-fifth Congress. 

Such in brief, Mr. Speaker, is the record of the public services of 
General Williams, and throughout them all is seen the distinguish- 
ing characteristic of the man, a conscientious and unselfish devotion 
to duty. Upon this record rests not a single stain or blemish. 

My personal acquaintance with General Williams began in the 
spring of 1862 in the Shenandoah Valley, where we served together 
for a brief period in the same command. We served together again 
during the Atlanta campaign, when we separated to meet once more 
in this Hall when General Williams took his seat in the Forty- 
fourth Congress. 

It was my good fortune, Mr. Speaker, to serve with General Will- 
iams on the Committee on Military Affairs of that Congress, and our 
acquaintance ripened rapidly into a friendship sundered only by his 
death. He was a most valuable member of that committee. Endowed 
by nature with a strong intellect, carefully educated in youth, and 
trained by long use in positions of high responsibility, and with a 
heart filled with generous impulses, he was quick to grasp the real 
merits of every question presented for solution. While always care- 
ful to search out the law of each case, he gave due weight to the 
equities involved; and while anxious to do every justice to the indi- 



1 6 ADDRESS OF MR. BANNING ON THE 

vidual, he was equally careful of the interest of the public. Hence 
his views were of inestimable value, and his influence in committee 
marked and wholesome. 

In him the friendless or unfortunate always found an advocate, 
while fraud and corruption, however powerful, found in him a firm 
foe. Although a man of impulses, he was never perceptibly swayed 
by prejudice, and never pronounced a judgment but after careful 
scrutiny had made him familiar with the merits of the case. Though 
slow to make up his mind on matters of importance, he was quick to 
act and tenacious of purpose. Having once formed an opinion, he 
was proof against the arts of persuasion, although ready to change 
his mind upon new evidence. 

General Williams was eminently practical in his views and direct 
in his purposes. He was upright and conscientious in every walk of 
life, public and private. Genial and kindly in disposition, making 
hosts of friends, and never losing the confidence of any who once 
became attached to him, so pure was his character and so elevated 
were his motives that though passing through many hotly contested 
political struggles, the most envenomed partisan never presumed to 
question his integrity. 

Mr. Speaker, our late friend passed through more than a third of a 
century of pubHc and political life, and during that whole period 
enjoyed the unwavering confidence of his friends and commanded 
the esteem and respect of his opponents. This simple fact, sir, alone 
constitutes a eulogy eloquent beyond the most impassioned oratory. 
In the Forty-fifth Congress General Williams was selected to fill 
the important and trying position of chairman of the Committee for 
the District of Columbia. Bringing to this duty his experience had 
in the government of Detroit, together with a known unswerving 
integrity, he made himself a place in the hearts of the people of this 
District which it would be difficult to fill. The shock produced here 
by the announcement of his death was manifested by public meet- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 1 7 

ings, while the universal grief of men of all parties in the city of 
Detroit, who assembled to honor his funeral obsequies in that city, 
attest the love and esteem in which he was held by friends and 
neighbors. The public officials, the courts, the bar, the merchants, 
bankers, mechanics, in fact all classes of citizens of Detroit, joined in 
marks of respect to his memory, and his old comrades in arms gath- 
ered from all sections of the country to mingle their tears over the 
bier of their beloved commander. And so, followed to his tomb by 
a whole community of mourners, he was laid to rest with all the 
honors that are paid to heroes. 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. yVLAYHAM, OF NeW YoRK. 

Mr. Speaker: Again has death summoned a halt in our legis- 
lative duties and we are called upon to gather around the bier of 
our departed brother, to pay that tribute of respect due to the 
memory of his exalted character and distinguished public services. 
Here in the presence of the inexorable destroyer we meet on 
common ground as brethren of a common humanity, and for a 
moment forget the conflicting interests, the party strifes, the personal 
ambitions of this fleeting and transitory life and are sadly reminded 
of our own mortality. In the observance of these fitting memorial 
services dedicated to the memory of General Alpheus S. Williams, 
I feel oppressed with a sense of my utter inability to express in 
suitable language my own high appreciation of his many noble and 
manly characteristics, but I cannot refrain from placing on record a 
feeble tribute of respect to his memory. 

My personal acquaintance with General Williams commenced 
with the commencement of the Forty-fifth Congress. Though at 
first that acquaintance was in official relations as a member of a 
committee of which he was the honored chairman, it soon ripened 
into personal friendship, and I learned early to esteem and confide 



3 ws 



l8 ADDRESS OF MR. MAYHAM ON THE 

in him as a friend, as well as to admire him as a faithful, honest, and 
efficient public officey, in which latter capacity he always exhibited 
those strong and commanding traits of character which, through his 
long and eventful life, secured for him from time to time such 
marked and decisive evidence of public confidence. 

I think I but pronounce the universal judgment of gentlemen 
upon this floor when I say that no man ever brought to the discharge 
of official station a more honest and conscientious purpose to do his 
whole duty. Fidelity to public trusts was one of the cardinal princi- 
ples of his life, and in the application of that principle to his official 
duties he rendered invaluable service to the committee, the House, 
and the country in the important position in which he was placed as 
chairman of the Committee for the District of Columbia ; and that 
committee and this District suffered in his death a loss that cannot 
well be supplied. 

The life and history of General Williams is not only one of 

interest to his contemporaries, but one which may be studied with 

great profit and advantage by the youth and rising generations of 

this country. It illustrates in a marked degree the surest method 

under our free system of government of attaining true greatness, and 

proves the truth of the couplet, that — 

Honor and fame from no conditions rise ; 
Act well your part, there all the honor lies. 

It shows that fame is won by noble deeds, and that honor and 
distinction are within the reach of all, but cannot be achieved without 
active and persistent personal effort. 

General Williams was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, September 
20, 1810. His ancestors were among the first settlers of that colony, 
and he proved himself no degenerate son of the brave and chivalrous 
pioneers from whom he descended, whose habits of industry and 
enterprise have so impressed themselves upon that State and the 
country. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. I9 

Left an orphan in childhood, his youthful training devolved upon 
his grandfather, and his early education was conducted by Rev. Dr. 
King, a Congregational clergyman at North Killingworth. At an 
early age he was prepared for college at Lee's Academy, and in 
1827 entered Yale, and graduated in 1831 at the age of twenty-one 
years. He then entered the Yale law school, under the professorship 
of Judge Daggett, where he spent three years in the study of law. 

Fond of travel and adventure, on leaving his alma mater he trav- 
eled extensively through the Southern States and Mexico, and in 
1834 sailed for Europe, where he spent two years in an extended 
tour, visiting all the important points upon the European continent; 
and returning in 1836, he settled in the city of Detroit, Michigan, 
where he continued to reside up to the time of his death, which city 
of his adoption has been the principal theater of his active and 
useful life. 

In 1837, the year that the State of Michigan was admitted into 
the Federal Union, General Williams was admitted to the bar of 
the State of his adoption, and in 1839 was elected judge of the court 
of probate of Wayne County, Michigan, in which capacity he served 
for four years, when at the expiration of his term, he was elected one 
of the board of aldermen of the city of Detroit. About this time he 
became connected with the press, and conducted one of the leading 
journals of that city for about four years, when his editorial career 
was interrupted by his entering the volunteer service of his country 
as lieutenant-colonel of the First Michigan Regiment of Volunteer 
Infantry in the Mexican war, in which his command did valuable 
service in dispersing the guerrillas at Cordova and in the valley 
between the Orizaba Mountains and Vera Cruz. At the close of the 
Mexican war he returned to Detroit, and in the spring of 1849 was 
appointed postmaster of that city, a position which he held until 1853, 
when by a political change in the Federal executive administration 
he was superseded in that office. 



ADDRESS OF MR. MAYHAM ON THE 



After retiring from the post-office General Williams engaged 
actively in many important business enterprises, but held no official 
position except member of the school board of Detroit until the 
breaking out of the last war, when he promptly tendered his services 
to the Federal Government, serving first as president of the State 
military board ; then as commander of the military camp of instruc- 
tion at Fort Wayne, Michigan; and on the i7*th of April, 1861, was 
commissioned by President Lincoln as brigadier-general of volunteers, 
and was ordered to report to General McClellan, and was by him 
transferred to the division under General Banks, then stationed in 
Maryland. 

Mr. Speaker, to follow General Williams through his brilliant 
military career, in that long, sanguinary, and trying struggle would 
be to repeat here an important chapter in the history of the war. 
From the time he entered the service until he was honorably 
discharged in June, 1866, he took prominent and conspicuous part, 
at the head of his command, in more than twenty important engage- 
ments, among which were the battles of Winchester, Cedar Mountain, 
Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburgh, and Atlanta; and finally, 
in command of his division, he accompanied the aimy under General 
Sherman in its celebrated march from Atlanta to the sea. 

In the spring of 1862 General Williams was commissioned a 
major-general of volunteers, and from that time until the close of the 
war he had command of a division, and his mihtary achievements at 
the head of his command shed luster upon the brilliant records of the 
volunteer officers and soldiers of the war. 

In every position he acquitted himself honorably and well, nor was 
he found wanting in any emergency either in skill or valor. 

After his retirement from the Army in 1866 General Williams was 
appointed by President Johnson a member of the commission to 
examine the military claims of Missouri, and in the same year he was 
appointed by the President and Senate minister to San Salvador, in 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 21 

Central America, where he spent three years m the discharge of the 
duties of that mission. In 1874 he was elected from Detroit to the 
Forty-fourth Congress, and was re-elected in 1876 to this Congress, 
in which he was serving at the time of his death. 

In all the positions of trust to which he was elevated in civil hfe 
he exhibited the same devotion to country, the same courage in 
maintaining the right that had rendered him conspicuous in the field. 
Modest and retiring in his disposition, he was nevertheless true at all 
times to his convictions, and never swerved from the path of duty to 
court temporary favor or partisan rewards. Conservative in all his 
notions, he was never moved by popular passion or prejudice, but 
weighed with thoughtful deliberation every official act in the light 
of its effect upon the weal of his country. Through all his official 
and private life he never deviated from the path of strict integrity ; 
and the highest eulogy that can be pronounced upon his character is 
the universal judgment of his countrymen that he lived and died an 
honest man — "the noblest work of God." 

Mr. Speaker, it was my privilege to spend the last half-hour of his 
eventful official life with him in his committee-room in this House. 
On the morning on which he was stricken down by the disease that 
terminated in his death, I met him in that room before the time fixed 
for the convening of his committee. On that day, Mr. Speaker, by 
your rules, the committee of which he was chairman was to be called. 
In apparent good health and in excellent spirits, he conversed cheer- 
fully and hopefully of passing through this House some measures of 
legislation matured in the committee in which he felt a lively interest 
and which he believed would promote the best interest of this District 
and the country. 

But, alas! how vain are all human calculations. Before the hour 
of high noon, fixed for the convening of this House, and before your 
gavel summoned him hither, he was stricken by fatal disease and his 
official duties in this life were ended. Like a noble gladiator, he 



ADDRESS OF MR. MAYHAM ON THE 



died in the arena, at his post of duty, his last moments spent hke the 

bulk of his long and useful life, in the service of his country. How 

truly may it be said : 

Fate steals along with silent tread, 
Found oftenest in what least we dread, 
Frowns in the storm with angry brow, 
But in the sunshine strikes the blow. 

General Williams had faced death upon the sandy plains and 
amid the rugged mountains of Mexico; had stood exposed in the 
thickest of the fight in a score of batdes when shot and shell spread 
carnage and death on every hand, but had come out unscathed, to 
be stricken down almost as suddenly as by the stroke of a cannon- 
shot in the privacy and security of his room in this Capitol. 

He is removed from our midst. His seat is vacant in the com- 
mittee-room and upon this floor, but he has left a record in the history 
of his country which will be as enduring as the nation he so long and 
faithfully served. We can but cherish his memory and mourn his 
loss. 

Mr. Speaker, by your appointment it was my sad duty as a member 
of a committee of this House to follow his mortal remains to their 
last resting-place in the cemetery in the city of his adoption. 

In that home where he was best known, in that city v/here he had 
spent the flower and vigor of his life, among those friends to whom 
he had endeared himself by his many virtues, in that State with the 
entire history of which he had been identified from the day of its 
admission into the Federal Union to the time of his death, and on 
whose history he had shed such luster by his noble deeds, his death 
was most deeply mourned. The assembled throng who gathered to 
pay respect to his memory stood with bowed and uncovered heads 
as his lifeless clay was solemnly borne along the crowded streets 
No one could witness that assemblage of State, judicial, and munici- 
pal officers and the military and civic procession, draped in the sad 
habiliments of mourning, without being deeply impressed with the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 23 

fact that one prominent in noble public acts had fallen; and none 
could witness the universal grief of all classes, high and low, rich and 
poor, and not feel that a benefactor of his race was being borne away 
to the dark shadows of the grave. 

To the memory of noble deeds like his, marble and bronze statues 
may be reared by a grateful and munificent Commonwealth; but no 
monument can be erected by the hand of art so grateful to the 
memory of his real worth as that which is enshrined in the affections 
and engraven upon the hearts of his countrymen by the noble deeds 
of his life. They will linger in the recollections of a grateful nation, 
and will be cherished hke precious jewels in the memory of admiring 
and stricken friends, and the influence of his noble example will live 
in this country long after his mortal remains shall have dissolved to 
their native element. As the encircling waves radiating from the 
pebble dropped upon the surface of the placid lake spread wider and 
wider until they reach the shore, so will the influence of his well- 
spent life be felt further and further through succeeding generations 
in countless cycles to the shores of time. 



ytDDI^SS OF yVlR. J^HELPS, OF jDoNNECTICUT. 

Mr. Speaker: Alpheus S. Williams was born in the State of Con- 
necticut, in the district which I represent, and in the town which, 
when he removed from it, embraced the locality where I reside. 
Some of my nearest neighbors are among his kindred, and during his 
Congressional service we were personal friends. It is fitting, there- 
fore, that I should add, in a few and sincere words, my humble offer- 
ing to those of his colleagues and others who have already addressed 
and are yet to address the House on this occasion. 

The detailed history of his life and character has been so fully and 
faithfully narrated by his colleague [Mr. Hubbell], who introduced 
the resolutions now before the House, and his military career by him, 



and also by my friend from Ohio, General Banning, and my friend 
from Massachusetts, General Banks, who were for some time his com- 
rades in the field, as to leave nothing unsaid in those respects ; and 
I shall content myself with such more general observations as occur 
to me, and in making them shall need the indulgence of the House 
but for a few moments. 

The vigorous New England morality which characterized the era 
of his youth, combined with the thorough academic training Avhich 
he received at one of the most renowned of American universities, so 
imbued his moral and endowed his mental nature that when he went 
forth at the age of twenty-six years to engage in the business of life 
upon what was then the frontier of Western settlement and civiliza- 
tion, he was not unj^repared for the struggle. What was at that time 
the border of an almost illimitable wilderness has since become the 
center of population and refinement, and the foundation of its unex- 
ampled growth in all the elements of material prosperity may in 
large part be justly credited to the strong intellect, the unyielding en- 
terprise, the stern morality, and earnest piety of its New England 
settlers. Such men and women are the true founders and builders 
of enlightened States. Their plan of settlement included the church 
and school-house, and they provided for them when they made pro- 
vision for the houses which were to shelter themselves and their 
children. They not only grew up with but stamped their noble pe- 
culiarities upon the section in which they located ; and they, and 
those who followed them, have greatly contributed to make it what 
we now see it, in all respects a great and prosperous and powerful 
part of the American Union. 

General Williams was in many respects a genuine type of that 
class of men. His personal characteristics were of the highest order. 
He was a true gentleman, a liberal citizen, an obliging neighbor, a 
sincere friend. His nature was kindly and gentle as a woman's, and 
no deserving appeal to either his charity or generosity was ever dis- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 25 



regarded. No one among all his associates here was more justly 
esteemed for those sterling intellectual and social qualities which 
bind men together in the closest bonds of confidence and sympathy, 
and he invariably attached to himself those who came within the circle 
of his intercourse. His best and most enduring monument will be 
the lasting remembrance and unqualified respect of his fellow-citi- 
zens. 

Of an exceptionally quiet demeanor, he never mingled in the un- 
seemly strife of tongues which has sometimes converted this repre- 
sentative body into an excited and disorderly assemblage. I well 
remember how, during the closing scenes of the last session of the 
Forty-fourth Congress, when the country was passing through the 
most dangerous crisis it had ever experienced, and the surging waves 
ofpartisan excitement in this Hall were shaking the foundations of 
the government, he was one of a very small number who were calm 
and self-possessed. His natural conservatism led him to take his 
side with those who loved their country with unselfish devotion and 
thought it wise to sacrifice temporary party ascendency, which they 
believed they had fairly won, rather than precipitate civil strife, which 
would have greatly imperiled, if it did not destroy, everything valua- 
ble in American institutions. 

While he never aspired to leadership, he was not a servile indorser 
of the policies of others. An enlightened conscience was his guide 
in public as in private affairs. He entertained decided opinions on 
all important public questions, which were formed upon careful ex- 
amination and matured reflection. These he avowed with independ- 
ence and maintained with resolution. He was not so blind an adher- 
ent to party that he could not sometimes see something which his 
candor compelled him to commend in the opposition, and occasion- 
ally something to disapprove in the conduct or policy of his political 
friends. He never lacked the courage to act according to his honest 
convictions, and in doing so his acknowledged integrity of purpose 



4 ws 



26 



ADDRESS OF MR. PHELPS ON THE 



never failed to shield him from unfriendly criticism. He was espe- 
cially averse to display, and sought least of all to exhibit himself. 

As a statesman he discharged with ability and becoming dignity 
all the diplomatic and legislative duties which were devolved upon 
him. In the pecuharly delicate position of a representative of his 
government abroad he was prudent and vigilant ; and while he oc- 
cupied a seat in this House no constituency had a more honest or 
faithful Representative. He regarded a public office as an important 
trust, in the execution of which the utmost fidelity was to be observed, 
and did not consider himself discharged from responsibility until that 
measure of faithfulness had been fully exercised. 

As a soldier he performed meritorious service in the war with Mex- 
ico, in which a few gallant Anglo-Saxon battalions subdued an empire 
and conquered an honorable peace in the enemy's capital. In the 
late civil struggle, in which the mightiest armies ever marshaled on 
this continent, led by the greatest captains of the age and composed 
of men of the same brave race and blood, were for four years hurling 
at each other the most terrible thunderbolts of war, he held high com- 
mand in the field, and maintained with unshaken patriotism through- 
out the contest the integrity of the Union and the glory of the flag. 

Sir, as by common consent the discord of this Hall is hushed and 
the work of legislation laid aside to give way to this solemn duty, I 
cannot forbear repeating the allusion so often recently made on occa- 
sions like the present to the suddenness and frequency of death in 
our midst. He whose departure we now specially deplore is but one 
of a noble group who have been lately taken from us. Once, and 
again, and again, and again, in the short space of less than three 
weeks, was the startling summons which called one of our associates 
away from earth sounded in our ears. As life's silver cord was loosed 
they one by one passed into that mysterious shadow on the other side 
of which the universal conqueror here is himself subdued, and this 
mortal puts on immortality. They have each left to his friends the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 27 

legacy of an honorable name, and to his country a record of distin- 
guished service which shall be hereafter written upon the pages of her 
history. But a few days since they were all with us in the flush of 
health and hope. Now, 

Death lies upon them like an untimely frost. 

But in the case of our friend death was not unmerciful. He was 

taken not in the morning, neither in the meridian of life. The years 

of his usefulness were beneficently lengthened to almost the allotted 

span when — 

God's finger touched him, and he died. 

He passed away in the maturity of age and the ripeness of expe- 
rience, while yet his " eye was not dim nor his natural force abated." 
Few, very few, have better improved the talents intrusted to their 
care, or given to their fellow-men more satisfactory evidence of a 
profitable stewardship. 

Over the demise of General Williams the State of his birth mingles 
both her pride and her lamentation with those of the State of his 
adoption, and unites with her in paying to his memory the tribute of 
her profound respect. 

For myself and my colleagues and in the name of our Common- 
wealth I reverently lay upon his resting-place a chaplet of immortelles 
and a crown of amaranth. 

Brave soldier, honored statesman, cherished friend! When the 
snow-clad earth on that wintry December day closed over your mor- 
tal remains, the tomb shut forever from our view one whom we had 
known only to respect and have lost only to lament. 

Our lives are rivers gliding free 

To that unfathomed boundless sea — 

The silent grave ; 
Thither all earthly pomp and boast 
Roll, to be swallowed up and lost 

In its dark wave. 

But to the eye of faith that is not the end. When the warm spring- 
time shall again come with its new life of verdure and its new bloom 



28 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLITS ON THE 

of flowers it will symbolize a resurrection. The stone shall at length 
be rolled from the door of the sepulcher and its portals be no more 
sealed. The lost shall be regained and the separated forever re- 
united. 



Address of Mr. Willits, of Michigan. 

When a worthy man dies, he should not too soon be forgotten. 
The memory of a good man is a heritage; his life an example to 
his generation. We live, labor, suffer, and die; .we achieve success, 
fill the measure of our duties, and pass away. For a time the place 
remains unfilled, the armor is thrown aside, the duties are suspended. 
But soon the armor is taken up, the duties are assumed by others, 
and the place is filled by some one of the coming generation which 
so closely follows. There is but a short halt in the work, and then 
it goes on again. 

Some men originate, others perform. It is given to some to mark 
the outlines, and to others to fill in the details. As a rule the man 
who designs either has not time or is incompetent to execute. The 
man who does the work and does it well is as essential to the plan as 
its projector. The great captains of every age succeed because they 
have good lieutenants. Lincoln had Stanton; Grant had Sherman 
and Thomas, McPherson, and Rawlins. 

Frequently, leadership is nominal, position an accident; the cap- 
tain a figure-head, but the lieutenant never. He does the work, is 
never an accident. In the history of this world fame comes to the 
man who represents results, whether he has earned it or not. Let us 
not forget the patient toil; the honest thorougti work that made these 
results possible. All honor to the lieutenants — to them gratitude if 
not glory. 

To-day I would speak a few words in honor of one of these lieu- 
tenants. He never aspired to be captain; he never sought leader- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 29 

ship. Whatever of place or position he held came to him as the 
proper man to fill it. He honored the State of Michigan as she 
delighted to honor him. Forty- two years of his life he gave to her 
and his country through her. 

Alpheus Starkey Williams deserves to be remembered. The 
lesson of his life is that he always did his duty and did it well. He 
was emphatically one of the workers through whom results were 
achieved. He was well equipped for his life labor. He had a sturdy 
constitution that brought him to the age of sixty-eight years without 
a serious illness. He was born of Welsh-English parentage at Say- 
brook, Connecticut, September 20, 1810; graduated in his twenty-first 
year at Yale College; spent the following three years at the Yale law 
school. During the years of his collegiate and law course he was a 
great traveler and visited every State then in the Union, and the 
Mexican province of Texas. After he finished his law studies he 
spent two years in Europe, returning to his native land in 1836. At 
the age of twenty-six, with all the culture that Yale could give ; with 
a mind stored in the classics and the law ; with a thorough knowl- 
edge from personal observation of his own country and with the 
accomplishments of foreign travel; with a clear head, a trained intel- 
lect, a cultivated taste, a strong constitution, he sought a home at 
Detroit, in the then infant State of Michigan. At this time Michigan 
had a population of less than one hundred thousand. In this new 
Commonwealth, just placed in the galaxy of States, he cast his life 
lot. He was one of the almost countless number whom the East has 
sent to build up the West. 

As a rule, this influx was composed of men like General Williams, 
young, full of energy, scant in material resources, relying upon the 
talent nature has conferred, upon habits of industry primitive New 
England so wonderfully fostered, with the keen sense of independ- 
ence and self-reliance which so characterize the Anglo-Saxon race. 
The pioneers of the West were a- hardy race ; not heroic, perhaps, in 



30 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLITS ON THE 

the sense the poets sing, but their lives and labors were truly heroic. 
Their sturdy toil, wise forethought, patient willingness to build that 
others might enjoy; their sacrifice of present ease that they might 
found a home for their children and give them the culture and advan- 
tages denied to themselves; all these, and more that time forbids us 
to mention, furnish subjects for the consideration of statesmen and 
the meditation of poets. 

At the time our deceased colleague landed in Detroit, the woods 
of Michigan were full of just such men, who were slashing the sturdy 
oak and turning up the virgin soil to the sun; who were plowing and 
planting, clearing and building; men who like him had left homes of 
culture and many social advantages for the log cabin to be found 
only by following the blazed trees; for a social intercourse limited to 
"raisings" and "frolics" by the burning log-heaps in the clearings, 
or the grand old blazing fire-place that threw a ruddy glow upon the 
joyous, rustic scene. At the eastern edge of this forest was Detroit, 
one of the gateways into the "far West." Though but a small town 
she had a history of over one hundred years. For over a century 
the whitewashed cottages of the French settler had dotted the shores 
of " the straits," where Pontiac, Tecumseh, and other noted Indian 
warriors had held their councils, and the tribes gathered for their 
annual tribute. The Indian wars were over; the war of r8i2 had 
finally settled in the mind of the Indian and all the world the suprem- 
acy of the United States over the vast territory which from the time 
of Marquette down had been debatable ground; and now it was open 
to the peaceable occupation of the pioneer and adventurer, and an 
immigration began that almost equaled the irruption of the tribes of 
Central and Northern Europe upon the plains of France, Italy, and 
Spain. In 1836 this immigration was at its highest; Detroit was 
filled with men on "fortune bent." Among them came our friend. 
He found there his peers in culture, his equals in ability to grasp 
success in the feverish, adventurous life in this new home; but among 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 31 

them all there was to be found no one his superior in integrity or in 
steadfastness of purpose. He was all his life a positive man; a man 
of fixed convictions; a conservative man; a safe man. 

These characteristics soon won for him a place in the new society 
he had entered. In 1837 he was admitted to the bar; in 1839 elected 
judge of probate for four years; in 1843 alderman, and 1844 recorder 
of Detroit. From 1843 to 1847 he was p/oprietor of the Detroit 
Advertiser, the leading Whig paper of the State, which he disposed 
of to lead the First Michigan Volunteer Regiment to the Mexican 
war. In 1849 he was appointed postmaster of Detroit by President 
Taylor and held the place for four years. During 1858 and 1859 he 
was a member of the board cf education of the city. In 1861, fol- 
lowing the convictions he held, that the perpetuity of our institutions 
depended upon the continued union of the States, he entered into 
the late civil war on the side of the Union. War, and particularly 
a popular war, develops remarkable and unexpected changes in the 
character of men. Great men arise to meet a great emergency, either 
in the council or on the field. The times, accident, or a seeming 
trivial occurrence sometimes changes the current of a man's whole 
life. Human nature is many-sided. Anomalies exist and appear 
where least expected. History is bristling with exemplifications. 
From the time when, as the story goes, Tyrtaeus roused by his odes 
and paeans the sinking courage of the Spartans, and the lame poet 
enrolled his name among the military saviors of the city, the scholar, 
traveler, the refined gentleman, has proved gloriously that those at- 
tainments and accomplishments in no wise unfit him for the rougher 
life of a soldier. Readily and successfully have the classic and luxu- 
rious retirements of the study given place to the stirring scenes of 
camp life. Such proof is given in the career of the man in honor of 
whose memory we assemble to-day. 

From April, 1 861, to January, 1866, General Williams served his 
country in camp and on the battle-field. To him this was a solemn 



32 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLITS ON THE 

duty, into which he entered with his characteristic singleness of 
purpose. He left his State as brigadier-general of volunteers, with 
a commission dating from April, 1861, and never returned until July, 
1865. He never received a furlough. His life was in camp with his 
men; his family subordinated to his country. His home ties, strong 
as they were, could not draw him away from the higher duty to 
which he felt himself called. Into this new life he put all his energy. 
He called into requisition all those qualities which he had inherited 
from his sturdy ancestors, and had so highly developed by education 
and travel. That he spent those years in the vicissitudes of war 
with a full appreciation of all that occurred is attested by the numer- 
ous letters written to his family, a volume of themselves, in which 
there is much that is worthy of preservation, and from which I would 
like to quote, would time and the occasion permit. Suffice it to say 
they are models of purity in style, of graphic description, and in 
wholesome discussion of the events of the war. But underlying all 
and pervading all is a sincerity of conviction and honesty of purpose 
that defeat could not destroy nor seeming injustice impair. He never 
complained; he never said aught in derogation of a fellow-soldier; 
he was charitable even toward those who supplanted him or were 
advanced when seemingly he justly was entitled to the promotion. 
He was a noble man as well as a gallant soldier. 

A word now as to the part our friend took in the strife which for 
four years so filled the minds and hearts of our people. 

General Williams had had some military experience as a private 
and afterward as captain of the celebrated Brady Guards ; and in the 
United States service, in the winter of 1838 and 1839, during what is 
known as the "Canadian patriot war." Also, in October, 1847, he 
was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the First Michigan Volun- 
teers for the Mexican war, but his regiment arrived too late to take 
a share in the battles about the City of Mexico. The regiment was 
mustered out in July, 1848. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 33 

In the late war General Williams's first services were as president 
of the State military board and commander of the camp of instruc- 
tion at Fort Wayne, near Detroit, for the officers and non-commis- 
sioned officers of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Michigan Volunteer 
Regiments. From this important post he was ordered to report as 
brigadier-general to McClellan for active service, and by the latter 
general was assigned to the command of the third brigade of General 
Banks's division. Shortly after assuming this command occurred the 
battle of Ball's Bluff; and from that time on General Williams saw 
continuous, active service to the end of the war. 

This is not the time nor the place to enter into a detailed descrip- 
tion of these campaigns. Suffice it to say that during the famous 
series of battles, at Ball's Bluff, Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chancel- 
lorsville, and Gettysburgh, which the Army of the Potomac fought. 
General Williams, at the head of a brigade, division, or corps, gal- 
lantly took his share. Here he gained the reputation which has 
followed him through his life and to his grave and which will linger 
an unfading picture upon the memories of his comrades and upon the 
tablets of public recollection — that of a conscientious and successful 
coadjutor and executor of his chief — a kind, popular, and beloved 
comrade, and a gallant, skilled, and distinguished officer. 

In September, 1863, with his old division General Williams was 
ordered West to the Army of the Cumberland. During the winter 
of 1863-64 he covered the Nashville and Bridgeport Railroad. 

In May, 1864, he entered upon the famous "campaign of one hun- 
dred days under fire," which ended with the capture of Atlanta. In 
November, of the same year. General Sherman organized his forces 
for the celebrated ''march to the sea." In command of his division 
General Williams joined in the march. At Savannah he was made 
a brevet major-general, and became an important factor in the suc- 
cesses of the campaign. 

At the close of the war General Williams reported at Washington 



5 ws 



34 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLITS ON THE 

and was assigned to the West. He continued in command of a mil- 
itary district in Missomi until January, 1866. While home at Detroit 
on leave of absence, he was honorably discharged from the Army. 

His was a peculiar faculty. At his command and ready for instan- 
taneous use were all the principles of strategic skill; a clear, ready 
mind, quick to choose and act, and an inexorable will combined with 
a perseverance which regarded no obstacles. These qualities, com- 
bined with his lovable character, made him what has come to be 
regarded almost an anomaly in history : a man whose resplendent 
reputation is clear and unsullied by the dislike of those above him 
in rank or the envy and jealousy of those beneath. At the end of the 
campaign through Georgia, the officers of his old brigade waited on 
him in a body and presented the unanimous petition of one and all that 
" Old Pap," as he was fondly called by his men, might return to his old 
command. The respect in which he was held by his superiors is shown 
by the distinguished consideration with which he was treated always 
when alive, and when gone from the cares and strife of this world, by 
the grief-stricken faces which appeared in the military pageant so fitly 
tendered on the departure of the sad funereal party from this city. 

General Williams left the Army to be still more honored among 
the representatives of his government abroad and in the councils of 
the nation at home. In December, 1866, he became minister resident 
of Central America, where he remained three years, and over which 
he traveled extensively. General Williams was elected to the Forty- 
fourth Congress, and re-elected to the Forty-fifth. I need not enlarge 
upon his services in this Chamber, or upon his fidelity out of it. We 
all knew him and all appreciated him. He was honest; he was firm 
in his convictions, little swayed by party passions, to which we all, 
too much, perhaps, are given. He was assiduous and conscientious 
in his duties, and remitted them not even though warned by his 
friends. He was stricken down in the line of his duty, in his com- 
mittee-room, while considering the important duties committed to 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 



35 



his charge. He died at his post, as is the wish of all good soldiers. 
We took his remains to his home, and laid them in the grave on the 
shores of the beautiful river which forty-two years before he first saw 
in the bright hope of his young manhood. 

May his soul rest in like peace and quiet beside that brighter 
stream, that golden river that flows by the throne of God. 



^DDRESS OF yVLR. yVlAISH, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Speaker : Again have we paused in the busy labors of this 
place. The usual clamor that marks the conduct of public business 
has given way to that sober silence which is but the outward expres- 
sion of the feelings of our hearts. 

We have met to pay a last sad tribute to a departed brother, now 
sleeping beneath the sod of the valley, and the solemnity of the 
occasion is intensified when we remember that this is but a repetition 
of similar scenes fresh in the memory of all. 

Death has been busy in our midst, and within a few weeks has 
marked for the tomb some of the most honored men of our day and 
time. First his summons came to him whose death we commemorate 
to-day. Hardly had he been borne to the grave when we were 
startled by the intelligence of the death of one of Virginia's noble 
sons, and the chair of Douglas was made vacant. Then came the 
mournful news that Hartridge, of Georgia, had fallen in the fight, 
and ere the gloom had passed away the fatal messenger had laid his 
hand upon Schleicher, of Texas. 

How impressively do these swift-recurring visitations remind us 
"what shadows we are and what shadows *we pursue." It is well 
that we should lay aside the ordinary business of life, and, forgetful 
of its ambitions, its cares, and its strifes, spend an hour in the imme- 
diate presence of that dread messenger who respects neither the 
beauty of youth, the strength of manhood, nor the majesty of age ; 



ADDRESS OF MR. MAISH ON THE 



who enters alike the palace and the cottage, and who cannot even 
be debarred here. 

In a long life of public service, General Williams held many- 
prominent civil and military positions. In all of the varied duties 
these imposed on him he acted his part so well that he gained high 
honor and distinction. Well equipped by a liberal education and 
extensive travel in the Old World, he entered upon the active field 
of life among strangers. 

In 1836 he located in Detroit. At that early period the city of his 
adoption was in the far West. In a young and growing city a man 
of energy and talent would not long be allowed to remain in obscurity. 
He was soon honored with various positions of public trust. In all 
of them he gained the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens. 

He began his military career in our war with Mexico. As lieuten- 
ant-colonel of one of the Michigan regiments he gained distinction 
as an officer and a soldier in that contest. It was, however, in the 
war of the rebellion that he achieved the crowning glory of his 
military reputation. He early responded to the call of his country. 
In August, 1 86 1, he was commissioned a brigadier-general, and was 
from that time until the end of the war intrusted with important 
duties and commands. Whether at the head of a brigade, a division, 
or a corps, he was equal to every situation, and always proved him- 
self an able, brave, and efficient officer. Beginning at Winchester in 
May, 1862, to Bentonville in March, 1865, he participated in fifteen 
battles, among which were Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettys- 
burgh. He was often honorably mentioned for his meritorious con- 
duct in battles, and was brevetted a major-general for " marked 
ability and energy." Such a name and such a record could not have 
been gained without abihties of a high order. Fictitious reputations 
were indeed sometimes made in our Army. General Williams won 
his by merit alone. 

As a member of this House he was highly esteemed for his ability 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 37 

and social qualities. His large experience and strong common sense 
gave him a commanding position here. He seldom participated in 
the discussions of this body. We all know, however, how attentively 
he was listened to when he did speak. He did not waste the time 
of the House to catch the ears of the galleries, nor to place his name 
on the pages of the Record. When he claimed its attention, we 
knew he had no other purpose than the promotion of the pubhc 
business. 

He was a man of independent thought and action. When his 
views differed from those of his party associates, he had no hesitancy 
in casting his vote accordingly. In his long and varied career as a 
public man he always maintained an unsullied reputation. Often as 
he was before the peopld as a candidate for office, at no time was his 
personal integrity assailed. His character was so exalted that party 
rancor could not reach it. 

Mr. Speaker, the eulogy which it has been my privilege to pro- 
nounce upon General Williams falls far short of his just deserts. 
I have as a Representative of Pennsylvania upon whose soil he 
fought, and many of whose brave sons he led in battle, added her 
tribute to his memory here. I have spoken of his bravery as a soldier, 
his ability as a statesman, but have not paused to dwell upon his 
remarkable social qualities and private virtues. After all, it is these 
that most endear to the heart and live longest in the memory. The 
victories in war or politics of a departed one may serve to keep his 
memory alive for a time, and cause his name to be mentioned by an 
unfeeling populace in terms of praise; but the sweet, endearing 
qualities which we have marked in our daily social intercourse will 
win that of greater value far than the applause of the noisy multi- 
tude — the tribute of a tear. None of us can forget the genial smiles 
and cheerful greetings of General Williams. That smile has faded 
from our sight, and " Silence now, enamored of his voice, locks its 
mute music in her rugged cell." 



38 ADDRESS OF MR. CALDWELL ON THE 



;(tDDRESS OF ^R. pALD-WELL, OF TENNESSEE. 

Mr. Speaker : In the early days of the Forty-fourth Congress my 
attention was called by one of my colleagues to the remarkable ca- 
reer of the distinguished man to whose memory we are now paying a 
tribute of respect. Turning to the Directory I read with surprise and 
admiration the brief story of his life as recorded therein. I invite 
the attention of the House to it now, for no gift of speech or rhetoric 
can convey so accurate an idea of his character as this simple, un- 
adorned recital of his long and varied public service : 

Alpheus S. Williams, of Detroit, was born at Saybrook, Connecticut, Septem- 
ber 20, 1810; graduated at Yale College in 1831 ; was a student in the Yale law 
school in 1832 and 1833; traveled in Europe in 1834, 1S35, and 1836; removed 
to Michigan in 1836, and commenced the practice of law; was judge of probate for 
Wayne County, i840-'44; alderman of Detroit in 1843, and recorder of the city in 
1844; was proprietor and editor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser in i843-'48; was 
lieutenant-colonel of the First Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Mex- 
ican war, i847-'48; was postmaster of Detroit, i849-'53; was a member of the 
Detroit board of education, i856-'57; entered the Union Army by appointment 
of the President as brigadier-general of volunteers in August, 1861 ; commanded 
the Twelfth Corps in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburgh, 
and the Twentieth Corps in the siege of Atlanta, on Sherman's ** march to the sea," 
and in the campaign of the Carolinas, and was mustered out of service in January, 
1866; was appointed in August, 1866, by the President, one of the commissioners 
to adjust the military claims of Missouri; was the Democratic candidate for gov- 
ernor in November, 1866; was minister resident to the Republic of Salvador, 
i866-'69; was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress, and was re-elected to the 
Forty-fifth Congress as a Democrat, receiving 14,471 votes against 12,417 votes for 
Henry M. Duffield, Republican, and 1,736 votes for John V. Renkle, Greenback 
candidate. 

After graduating in 1831 at an institution which has prepared 
many of our public men for careers of honor and usefulness, after 
more than four years devoted to the study of the law and to European 
travel, and after four more years spent in the practice of his chosen 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 39 

profession in the city of Detroit, at the age of thirty his public serv- 
ice commenced. First a judge of probate, then alderman and re- 
corder of the city, then proprietor and director of a great public jour- 
nal during five years of high partisan excitement, then lieutenant- 
colonel of a regiment that helped to plant the American flag over 
the halls of the Montezemas, then postmaster at Detroit for five 
years and member of the board of education, then as general in the 
volunteer service commanding one corps at South Mountain, Antie- 
tam, and Gettsburgh. and another in Sherman's memorable march 
to the sea and through the Carolinas; then, on the restoration of 
peace, a commissioner charged with the dehcate duty of adjusting 
the military claims of the State of Missouri; then, in 1866, the can- 
didate of the Democratic party for governor of Michigan ; for three 
years representing his country as minister resident to the Republic 
of Salvador, and then a member of the Forty-fourth and of this 
Congress. Where in all this book of biographies is there recorded a 
public service so long continued and so varied ? A jurist, an edu- 
cator, a warrior, a diplomat, a legislator ; such is the manifold char- 
acter that passes under review to-day. To discharge acceptably the 
duties and meet fully the responsibilities and demands of these va- 
rious offices must require a versatility of intellect very rarely be- 
stowed upon men. Men so gifted have illustrated our own annals, 
and here and there in the current of universal history have appeared 
most conspicuous examples. Chief among them is Julius Caesar. 
Essaying everything, he excelled in all. He was the foremost gen- 
eral and statesman of his age, and, excepting Cicero, its greatest ora- 
tor. As a historian, critics have united in the judgment that he has 
never been surpassed and rarely equaled in simplicity, vigor, and 
truthfulness. He was a mathematician and jurist, the friend and 
patron of letters and hterary men. Though his character be marred 
by a sensuality not uncommon in that age, the words which Shakes- 
peare puts into the mouth of Antony, in the famous apostrophe to 



40 ADDRESS OF MR. CALDWELL ON THE 

that " bleeding piece of earth," are not mere extravagances of a grief- 
oppressed brain : 

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man 
That ever lived in the tide of times. 

As already remarked, our own history is not without distinguished 
instances of this universal talent for public affairs, and foremost among 
them is Washington, of whom an ardent and eloquent Irishman once 
said : 

There have been splendid exemplifications of some single qualification : Caesar 
was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for 
Washington to blend them all in one, and exhibit in one glow of associated beauty 
the pride of every model and the perfection of every master. 

In his essay upon the character of Hampden, when he laments the 
untimely fall of that great man, Mr. Macaulay makes this allusion to 
Washington : 

When the vices and ignorance, which the old tyranny had generated, threatened 
the new freedom with destruction, England missed that sobriety, that self-com- 
mand, that perfect soundness of judgment, that perfect rectitude of intention, to 
which the history of revolutions furnishes no parallel, or furnishes a parallel in 
Washington alone 

If such has been the estimate of enlightened foreigners, what judg- 
ment shall his own countrymen pass upon him ? Truly, sir, it may 
be said that the Father of his Country is so impressed upon mankind 
by tradition and history, and the fruits of his wisdom and labors, 
visible everywhere around us, that the world stands up to pronounce 
his to be one of the few characters in all history " which have stood 
the closest scrutiny and the severest test, which have been tried in 
the furnace and proved pure, which have been weighed in the bal- 
ance and not been found wanting, which have been declared sterling 
by the general consent of mankind, and which are visibly stamped 
with the image and superscription of the Most High." 

I pass over other distinguished instances in American history of 
this general talent for public service, as illustrated in such men as 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 4I 

Hamilton, Jackson, Gushing, with the remark that it has been less 
rare in ours than perhaps any other modern nation. 

Capacity and fidelity marked the conduct of General Williams in 
every branch of the public service in which he was engaged. An 
incorruptible integrity, a penetration rarely at fault, a high order of 
inteUigence, a courage that disdained to parley with wrong or be a 
party to any compromise of the right, a sense of justice that seemed 
an intuition, appeared to me as his distinguishing characteristics. 
He seldom asked the ear of this House and always spoke with pre- 
cision and clearness. His opinions were deliberately formed and 
most courageously maintained. I have taken occasion to review 
some of his speeches, and have been struck with their boldness, inde- 
pendence, and individuaUty. They are distinguished by no touch of 
the imagination nor play of the fancy, and embody only cold, clear, 
unadorned argument, directed with unerring accuracy at the point 
of dispute. 

I beg to call the attention of the House to an extract from a speech 
on a memorable subject and occasion two years ago. The mightiest 
controversy ever submitted to human tribunal had been laid before 
the electoral commission, and in rapid succession came judgments 
adverse to the views and fatal to the hopes of this side of the Hall. 
Opposition to the completion of the count in accordance with these 
judgments grew day by day in force and volume. The peace of the 
Republic seemed in imminent peril. General Williams realized to 
the fullest the dire extremity to which the government might drift, 
and gave expression to his earnest convictions of duty in these forci- 
ble and patriotic words : 

Granting all the charges brought against this commission to be true, that they 
have disregarded the law and the Constitution and followed solely partisan prefer- 
ences and predilections in their decisions, can I justify myself in ignoring the law 
I helped to make ? Shall I stand excused while voting for dilatory motions, in- 
tended practically to nullify a law of Congress and to place the government of the 
Republic in a state of chaotic uncertainty ? 



6 WS 



42 ADDRESS OF MR. CALDWELL ON THE 

It is plain that in defeating the decisions of the commission we remit ourselves 
to the original contest between the two Houses, and its inevitable result the decla- 
ration of a President by each House. We do just what we voted to avoid when 
with extraordinary unanimity we psssed the electoral commission law; we place in 
jeopardy the peace of the nation ; we vote for an internal strife, the end whereof 
no man can see. Neither my conscience nor my judgment allows me to be a party 
to so fatal a measure. 

Having reached his conclusion and seen clearly the path of duty, 
no threat could intimidate nor clamor shake him. Like the fabled 
oak, the ruder the blast the firmer it rooted him. His confidence was 
not merely that of a hero prepared for the onset and battle ; it was 
rather of the seed which bears fruit in martyrs, and which in the ages 
past has made mankind " faithful unto death." 

Another aspect of his character impressed me forcibly. While he 
was fond of the excitement and glory of the political arena, he had a 
contempt for much that is drawn around it by reckless ambition and 
selfish greed, so graphically portrayed by an eminent American di- 
vine: 

The wire-pulling and the bribery, the pitiful truckling and the grotesque com- 
promises, the exaggeration and the detraction, the melodramatic issues and the 
sham patriotism, the party watchwords and the party nicknames, the schemes of 
the few paraded as the will of the many, the elevation of men whose only worth is 
in the votes they command, vile men whose hands you would not grasp in friend- 
ship, whose presence you would not tolerate by your fireside ; incompetent men 
who^e fitness is not in their capacity as functionaries or legislators, but as organ- 
pipes ; the snatching at the slices and offal of office, the intemperance and the vio- 
lence, the finesse and the falsehood. 

All these things, the peculiar stock in trade of the demagogue, so 
intimately connected with political agitation and public life in this 
country and perhaps in all countries, inspired his honest and manly 
soul with a just disdain. He impressed me as a man that hated de- 
vious and crooked ways and loved direct and ingenuous dealing in 
public as well as in private life. 

His love for constitutional government and liberty protected there- 
under was intense and absorbing. That he should at the close of the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHUES S. WILLIAMS. 43 

war and after a most successful and brilliant military career have laid 
aside his armor and entered the lists of those who fought on political 
fields for the restoration of what they regarded as the constitutional 
rights of lately rebelHous States, braving the obloquy and detraction 
of the time, is a speaking index to his principles and character. He 
had only to resolve in what direction lay the right, and the con- 
sequences of pursuing it never cost him an apprehension or a 
thought. These were left to the Supreme Disposer of human events, 
in the firm conviction that truth is eternal and her ultimate triumph 
certain. 

In the social circle General Williams was genial and agreeable. 
His friends sought and loved his society. He contributed to the 
interest and life of a conversation from a large fund of humor, anec- 
dote, and reminiscence, and did it with much tact and delicacy. I 
recall now with melancholy interest a holiday spent in his company 
during the spring of 1878, at the Great Falls of the Potomac, which 
impressed me forcibly with the social and affectionate traits of a seem- 
ingly rugged nature. Around us was a scenery prodigal of a wild 
beauty, which lifted the mind above private and public cares into the 
bosom of nature. Huge masses of upheaved, disjointed, unshapen 
rock lay around on every hand, silently attesting some remote period 
when awful forces had there been called into play. Gray, water- 
worn, and sonorous, as for untold cycles they had been, they were 
eloquent of man's exceeding vanity and littleness. General Will- 
iams enjoyed and freely commented upon the scene; and as I 
recall now the day and the incidents the thought presses upon me 
that there was a similitude, a harmony, an analogy — a something, 
I know not what, that seemed a kinship between his time-worn 
and battle-scarred person and that scene of venerable and rugged 
grandeur. 

Mr. Speaker, there is a grandeur in such a character that must 
challenge our admiration and homage. Should there seem to be 



44 ADDRESS OF MR. CALDWELL ON THE 

spots upon it they are like the fleecy cloud that floats across the disk 
of the morning sun, for a moment casting a shadow over the specta- 
tor, but never approaching the face of the luminary. 

His life ended a little short of the allotted three score and ten — the 
ripest fruit gathered of late from these Halls by the inexorable Reaper. 
It had been full of incident and interest. The half century of his 
manhood had brought change and progress and promise as no equal 
period in the world's history had witnessed. Destiny in its onward 
sweep had borne him through revolutions of thought, of science, of 
human effort and achievement beyond all recorded precedent. He 
had seen the rise and fall of statesmen, parties, and administrations. 
He had seen his country advance with restless and unpausing energy 
to the rank of nations that boast the majesty and might of eventful 
centuries, impelled onward from stage to stage and progress to prog- 
ress with a rapidity at once dazzling and dangerous. From that 
wilderness his valor had helped to achieve he had seen the red man 
retiring — his arrow broken, his springs dried up, his council-fires ex- 
tinguished. He had seen the highest art usurp the domain of nature, 
planting it with populous cities and flourishing States. He had seen 
the nation convulsed by a fratricidal war that summoned millions to 
the red field of carnage and glory, putting to the test the skill, cour- 
age, and endurance of the highest type of modern manhood. He 
had seen the strength of serried ranks shivered, and a mighty issue, 
submitted to the stern abitrament of force, settled and put at rest we 
may hope forever. Of all this he was a spectator and in much of it 
was an actor, playing no inconspicuous part. Truly, sir, there was 
an appropriateness, a poetic harmony and grandeur in the circum- 
stances of his death — a Divine graciousness in the dispensation that 
allowed him to step from this Capitol and its exalted stage " out into 
that unexplored sea that rolls round all the world." 

More than once, Mr. Speaker, since I have had a seat here death 
has entered this Hall and borne away a choice spirit as a trophy of 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 45 

his resistless power. We may recall now with melancholy pride and 
interest the roll of the honored dead of the Forty-fourth and Forty- 
fifth Congresses translated from this palace of the nation to the lowly 
earth-house in the valley and on the hill-side, and to the long un- 
broken sleep of the ages : Starkweather, in the prime of life and very 
noontime of usefulness; Parsons, the youthful, handsome, gifted Rep- 
resentative of the Falls City ; I>eonard, the scholarly and ill-starred, 
while on a mission of the heart, yielding up his young life to a pesti- 
lential fever on an alien soil ; Quinn, genial, generous, incorruptible ; 
Welch, buoyant with all the energy, pride, and inspiration of the 
spring-time of life ; Douglas, famed even in Virginia as an orator and 
jurist; Hartridge, "the rose and expectancy" of Georgia; Schlei- 
cher, learned, laborious, and faithful; and last, the illustrious subject 
of these memorial exercises. Reviewing this luminous roll of de- 
parted worth and genius and manhood, we are reminded that our 
lives are but as the sands upon the shore, our voices but as the even- 
ing zephyrs that dally with the leaf for a moment and pass away for- 
ever. 

' Tis the wink of an eye, ' tis the draught of a breath, 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud — 
Oh ! why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 

Whence or how we came is mystery. Whither we tend we know 
not. We do know that the survivor of us all shall tarry but a little 
while here and then join the mighty caravan that has gone forward 
to the infinite Beyond. As each falls his place is filled. The repre- 
sentative is dead; long live the representative. The nation lives on; 
it has perished in none of its parts, for it exists not in one, nor a hun- 
dred, nor a thousand men, however eminent and great, but in the 
affections, hopes, energies, and will of forty millions of human be- 
ings. These themselves may perish and fall away, but other genera- 
tions advance to take their places ; for whom also the seed-time and 



4-6 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLIS ON THE 

the harvest, the snow and the rain, the sunshine and storm, the flow- 
ers and the music of birds shall come and go. 

So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed, 

That withers away to let others succeed. 

So the multitude comes, even those we behold, 

To repeat every tale that has often been told ; 

For we are the same our fathers have been; 

We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; 

We drink the same stream and view the same sun, 

And run the same course our fathers have run ; 

The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think ; 

From the death we are shrinking our fathers would shrink ; 

To the life we are clinging they also would -cling, 

But it speeds for us all like a bird on the wing. 

God grant that as our lives speed onward and the years go by in 
the solemn procession of the ages, they shall transmit the same love 
of free institutions and honest government, the same hatred of corrup- 
tion and misrule, the same exalted, self-denying patriotism that 
warmed the heart and guided the footsteps of the eminent man whose 
life we this day commemorate ; and we may best realize our own re- 
sponsibility and prove ourselves equal to it if we bear forever in 
mind that — 

Death hath made no breach 
In love and sympathy, in hope and trust ; 

No outward sign or sound our ears can reach; 

But there's an inward, spiritual speech 
That greets us still, though mortal tongue be dead, 
And bids us do the work that they laid down. 



^DDRESS OF yVS.R, ^LLIS, OF LOUISIANA. 

Mr. Speaker : With the shadows and sorrows of the bereavement 
occasioned by the death of General Williams upon us, we stand to- 
night face to face with the consideration of his Hfe, its achievements, 
its toils, its labors, its aspirations. With one accord we agree that 
it was a useful and honorable life; and, now that it is finished forever. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS- 47 



we would gather from it whatever of virtues it may have exemplified, 
whatever of example for our guidance it may have furnished. 

And yet, sir, I scarcely know how to add anything for our reflec- 
tion to what has already been said. The language of eulogy seems 
to me to be exhausted. The voice of that strong, manly affection 
which bound General Williams to the brave strong hearts of those 
who associated with him has been fully uttered. Not one single note 
of all the wondrous and touching symphonies which slumber in the 
lyre-strings of the mournful muse has been left untouched and un- 
awakened, while by masterly hands the outlines of the life and the 
features of the character of the illustrious dead have been drawn so 
perfectly that I painfully feel my inability to add a single touch to 
the already perfect work. And yet, sir, would I weave a chaplet, 
simple though it be, for his memory ; and from the perennial blooms 
and deathless verdure of the far southern land that I represent 
would I bring a flower to lay with those richer offerings which have 
been so lovingly placed upon the grave of our lamented friend. 

Mr. Speaker, men's lives are valuable as they incarnate ideas, or 
as they exemplify splendid virtues, or as they teach valuable lessons. 
AVe turn over the pages of the days and the years of their lives as we 
turn over the pages of a volume. Some of them we remember, others 
we mark ; some we love to recall, and others we forget as a volume 
or a page whereon no word is written. Those who have toiled for a 
great principle, who have taught their fellow-men useful lessons, or 
who have exemplified virtues worthy the imitation, live on even after 
death. Those who die having lived for naught, who failed to 
achieve and to teach and to exemplify, are but as demolished tem- 
ples wherein no worship was ever held, no rites performed, and 
around which no love clings and no fond memory dwells. 

Until this evening I had known but little of the details of that 
illustrious career whose sudden close causes the solemn services of 
this hour. But from the lips of his distinguished and eloquent col- 



48 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLIS ON THE 

league [Mr. Willits] I have heard elaborated the details of those 
labors and achievements which are so briefly outlined in the Congres- 
sional Directory. And recalling the events of his life from its very 
commencement, or rather from the time when with full panoplied 
manhood he mingled in the struggles of real life, down to its close 
here, the lesson which I gather in the very thought of his colleague 
is perfectly expressed in the language of America's greatest and 
purest soldier, and it is this : " Duty is the sublimest word of our 
language." 

My acquaintance with him began when he and I came to occupy 
seats as members of a former Congress, four years ago. Without 
culminating in very intimate association our relations grew into a 
cordial and sincere friendship which remained unabated to the close 
of his life. 

General Williams attracted all who approached him by a suavity 
of manner, by a gentleness of demeanor, by a high-toned and chiv- 
ahic bearing, by a universal courtesy and kindness which gave assur- 
ance of a noble heart within. We all remember his pleasant, cheer- 
ful voice, we recall his warm and cordial greetings, and we can never 
forget the infinite charm which his bright presence and genial con- 
versation diffused over every circle in which he moved. But, sir, all 
these traits of that noble character have been fully and fondly recalled 
here to-night. Be it my task to glance at a few leading events of the 
dead patriot's life to impress the lesson which I gather from it. 

Possessed of a liberal education, he was fully fitted to fight the 
battles of life. Fortunate in being able to travel abroad in Europe 
at a very early age, he was lifted above that narrowness of soul, he 
lost that provincialism which sometimes attaches to and dwarfs the 
strongest minds, and returned to his country from abroad well cal- 
culated and well qualified to perform a high and heroic part in its 
history, to impress himself upon his times, and to leave a lasting mon- 
ument of love and gratitude in the hearts of his countrymen. I find 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 49 

him winning distinction at the bar and fiUing high civic positions 
long before some of us who are here to-night were born. In all these 
stations we find him ever true to the dictates of duty. In the prime 
of his manhood, when the war-call came from the Rio Grande and 
from Mexico, and when all that was brave and chivalrous in America 
had gathered where War palsied Mexico's rooted mountains and 
bathed her gorges in battle-flames and hovered his boding, dark pres- 
ence over her chaparrals, we find this hero among the very first from 
the State of his adoption to fly to the field of duty and of danger. 
We all know how well he discharged his duty there. We know how 
superbly he illustrated the high qualities of the American soldier. 
We find him there, as everywhere, at the post of duty. He was like 
the lone sentinel who stands beneath the watching stars and who, 
though dangers thicken all around and creep about amid the shadows, 
deserts not his post, but dies there if need be ; or like the pilot who, 
with hand on wheel, amid storm or shipwreck or circling flames 
stands at the post of duty to die there if need be. So we find Gen- 
eral Williams in the high discharge of his duties as a soldier prof- 
fering his life to his country, to fight for her, for her to die if needs 
be. 

Returning from Mexico amid the rejoicing of a triumphant and 
grateful people. General Williams settled down once more to the 
pursuits of a peaceful and private life. Not long, however, was it 
before he was discharging the functions of high civil position under 
Federal appointment. And thus he continued growing steadily in 
the hearts of his people, beloved, honored, respected, and discharging 
with scrupulous care every duty which devolved upon him, whether 
as citizen, official, or lawyer. And there he remained until the terri- 
ble frown of the gathering war-cloud darkened our unhappy country 
and the hour grew heavy with peril. A new pathway of duty is sud- 
denly opened before him, and sorrowfully, sadly perhaps, and yet 
without faltering or hesitating, he sets out bravely to pursue it. 



7 ws 



50 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLIS ON THE 

Sir, in all that mighty tide of valor that poured from hill and plain, 
in all the mighty and majestic armies that gathered in this northern 
land beneath the folds of the flag of the Union, how many elements, 
how many emotions, how many different impulses there were ! There 
was youth with no knowledge of the realities, the terrible sufferings 
of war, gathered there perhaps from the high and chivalric impulse 
to dare the dangers of the field. To such there was something of 
pride in the perils of war, and they were eager and ready to rush to 
the fray to pluck some laurel from the battle-field. There were others 
that rallied in those grand armies from a feeling of philanthropy. 
Their inspiration and thought was that they were bearing liberty and 
enfranchisement and equal rights to a downtrodden and long-op- 
pressed race. There were perhaps a few who were animated by sec- 
tional hate ; but there were hundreds and thousands whose sole idea 
and sentiment was the preservation of the Union. In entering upon 
that terrible struggle General Williams was animated by no love of 
war, no thirst for glory. He had been in the tented field ; he had 
"drunk in the earthquake of the guns"; he had seen the writhing of 
the wounded; he had marked the pale scathed faces of the dead; he 
had seen how war's hostile hoofs trenched the land and blotted out 
its very civilization ; and from this spectacle of gathering strife his 
kindly and brave heart shrank. Nor was there with him any of the 
sentiment of philanthropy. From his standpoint, to his political 
views, the peculiar institutions of the South were guaranteed by the 
Constitution, nor did he believe that lawful power existed to touch 
or destroy it. Nor with him was there the mere sentiment of the 
preservation of the Union. There was to him something beyond ; 
the preservation of the Constitution, the absolute salvation of repub- 
lican government. In his belief liberty itself was imperiled, and 
imperiled too by the rash acts of his own countrymen. 

Sir, I can well imagine how that patriotic, that kindly heart would 
have averted the storm — how like Curtius he would have leaped into 



the gulf to save the Union and to preserve peace. I can well fancy 
that with him there was no passion, no hate, no other sentiment ani- 
mating his heart than the high and noble and splendid impulse of 
duty and of loyalty to his country, loyalty to her free institutions; 
and sternly, bravely, sadly, without passion, a splendid type of the 
conservative sentiment of the war democracy of the North, he went 
down to do battle for the Union and the Constitution. 

Mr. Speaker, I was of those who fought in the armies against which 
General Williams drew his sword. But I would be indeed blinded 
by prejudice and insensate of soul did I fail to appreciate and to can- 
didly avow the honest, the sincere convictions of duty, the lofty, un- 
bending, and sacred sense of loyalty which animated his soul when 
in sorrow rather than in anger my brother drew his sword upon me 
and my people, and without passion or hatred, solemnly and patiently, 
sadly but sternly, fought on until victory crowned his efforts with her 
smile. I trust, sir, the time may soon come when prejudice and pas- 
sion shall no longer prevent us from clearly seeing and manfully 
according honesty of purpose and purity of motive to all Americans 
who engaged in our unhappy strife. When that time comes we will 
be very near the glorious day of perfect peace and reunion. How 
nobly General Williams bore himself in that civil war has been told. 
He exhibited the highest qualities of the American soldier, and in an 
eminent degree developed great capacity to command, while he illus- 
trated a lion-like courage which made him seem at times to defy dan- 
ger and to court death upon the field. This quahty won from the 
common soldier that endearing and familiar epithet of "Old Fight- 
ing Pap," which followed him in peace, and which will live forever. 
Those who followed him can well remember with a soldier's pride 
that brow which was so calm amid whistling bullets, that form which 
rode with such death-defying heroism right amid the blaze of hostile 
guns, and that death-scorning courage that seemed to find its con- 
genial home upon the battle-field where brave men fought and bled 



52 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLIS ON THE 

and died for what they deemed was right. And the "star of the field 
that poured its beams upon his battle " and led him at last to victory 
was simply the light of his life, the star of duty. It was his "pillar 
of cloud by day and of fire by night." He followed it as stead- 
fastly and with the same faith that the prophet of Israel of old 
followed that which the Almighty's hand had upreared before 
his wondering and adoring ga2e; and at last it led him to victory 
and peace. 

And, Mr. Speaker, with General Williams the cessation of the war 
meant peace. His heroic soul was too noble to taunt the fallen; his 
brave heart was too manly to desire to persecute the humiliated and 
the conquered, and no sooner had that sword, as knightly and as 
chivalrous as ever bathed in the battle-light, or ever pointed the way 
to victory, been sheathed, than the hand which had so heroically 
wielded it was all busy with deeds of kindness, with endeavors to 
bind up the wounds of the war. 

Mr. Speaker, we are all familiar with his career here. Suffice it to 
say that duty guided him in all his ways and acts in this Hall. We 
miss him from his accustomed place. His seat is vacant. We miss 
his valued counsels, his great labors, his cheerful presence, and the 
strength we reposed in him. Death found him, while life had seemed 
ever to place him in the discharge of his duty ; still at his post, in the 
midst of his committee-room, discharging and prosecuting the duties 
of his committee, the arrow of death found him. The winter of his 
life had been reached ; its fullness was completed ; it was well fin- 
ished, filled to the full measure of duty done. We bore him away to 
slumber in the soil of his adopted State. 

And as Michigan, mourning Michigan, opened her arms to receive 
within her embrace all that remained of Alpheus S. Williams, to 
hold him forever in his final sleep, I can fancy that she kissed his 
cold forehead and said " No son hath served me more faithfully and 
more acceptably than thou." 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 



S3 



There, in her fond breast may he sweetly rest. Ay, 

Soldier, rest ; thy warfare o'er, 

Sleep the sleep that knows no waking ; 
Dream of battle-fields no more, 

Days of danger, nights of waking. 

Yes ; softly, sweetly, sleep in the bosom of thy adopted State. 

The flowers will bloom and the birds will sing above thee, and 
nature around thy last resting-place shall fling all the beauties that 
the changing seasons know. But no birdling's song, no flower's per- 
fumed breath, shall be purer or sweeter than were the emanations of 
thy soul. And no sunset cloud nor line of life shall be more grand, 
more beautiful than the example which thou hast left us. 

Mr. Speaker, we soon forget life's trials, all hfe's struggles, all life's 
achievements. But the majesty of death's seal impresses men's souls 
and dares them to forget. And such a life as that which we mourn 
to-day finished by death, shall live forever. 

It was a heathen poet, I beUeve, who said : 

In the halls that our feasts illume, 

The rose for one hour may bloom ; 

But the cypress that grows 'round the tomb, 

Ah ! the cypress is green forever. 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. ^LLSWORTH, OF MICHIGAN. 

Mr. Speaker: I am pleased to add my humble tribute to the 
memory of our lamented friend and brother. 

Sir, we are standing where the graves of our fallen comrades of the 
present Congress are thick. The statesman full of years and expe- 
rience has dropped out of the ranks and gone to a higher assemblage. 
The mature man, in the full bloom and blossom of life, has drifted 
away to the spirit land, and the boatman with the silent oar has 



54 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLSWORTH ON THE 

passed again, and the young man in his beauty and his glory has 
floated away to the other shore. Even while you look upon the man 
who comes in here full of hope and happiness, brimming over with 
energy and enterprise, anxious and ambitious to make for himself a 
name that will not die — while he stands before you in his pride, his 
life goes out, and he is gone forever. What a commentary on the 
pride and vanity of man. 

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
Man passes from life to his rest in the grave. 
« « « • * 

'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, 
From the blossom of health, to the paleness of death, 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud — 
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 

Why, sir, look around you, and see the silent resting-places of the 
dead. Here lies the great Senator and statesman from Indiana, so 
long the Boanerges of the Senate, whose war record has immortalized 
his name and will keep his memory green through the ages. The 
eyes of the millions loyal to the old flag are still wet with the tears 
his taking-off summoned from loving hearts. Here sleeps the silent 
form of the gallant and gracious Bogy, from the great State beyond 
the Mississippi; and here reposes all that is left of the educated and 
eloquent Leonard, the cultivated and classic gentleman from the 
Gulf, whose thoughts were wisdom and whose words were music; 
and here rests the manly and once majestic form of our hero, Major- 
General Alpheus S. Williams, the brave soldier and the wise and 
liberal-minded statesman, the gallant officer and the genial friend, 
the wise counselor and the knightly gentleman, the pure judge and 
the safe commander; and here, too, is the statesman from the land 
of flowers, the gifted and graceful gentleman from Savannah, the 
eloquent and accomplished Hartridge, whose praises are chanted 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 55 

in mournful measure in the city he loved, and the loss sustained 
by his decease will press down upon the hearts that loved him with 
greater and greater force as the days roll on and the years sweep 
by. 

And this is the resting-place of the once proud and pleasant gen- 
tleman from Old Virginia. Only a few years since and he was the 
great orator, the graphic speaker, the courtly gentleman, and the 
charming companion. Here, side by side, lie Quinn and Welch, 
good men and true, uniting the East and the West; and here is 
another, who has but just laid down his work. His voice still echoes 
in this Hall, we might almost believe, he was so recently with us, a 
distinguished and honored member. He, too, has laid his political 
burdens down and passed over the mysterious river. 

The earnest and energetic Schleicher, the able and active states- 
man, the kind, consistent, and conservative gentleman, has whis- 
pered his last good-night to us and disappeared. Surely we are among 
the graves and speaking to the dead. Life, at such a time as this, 
seems of little consequence indeed. How vain the pomp and show 
of fashion; how false and fooUsh ambition doth appear; how more 
than useless and unworthy human strife. 

When we behold the uncertainty of life, how like a dream it comes 
and goes! When we see the great, the good, the ambitious, and the 
proud cut down and gone as goes the fairest and frailest flower, 
blighted by a breath or breeze blown across the blossom — at such an 
hour we can forget the unkind word; the strife and struggle of debate 
are lulled to rest; the angry and acrimonious charge, preferred in 
the hour of prejudice or of passion, is regretted and recalled, forgiven 
and forgotten. Here and now no unhallowed thoughts come in to 
divide disturb, or distract us. Here and now the clamoring cry of 
pohtical ambition is still; we are the best of friends just now. Here 
in the calm of death and in the sadness and silence of these green 
but grassless graves we are gentle and generous, grave and gracious. 



56 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLSWORTH ON THE 

Why, the very air is full of the spirit of kindness and of love. Why 
should it not be so to-morrow? Why should this gentle and loving 
spell speed away with the passing hour? 

Why can we not cling to the sweet and sacred emotions begotten 
by this occasion, and allow them to guide us into paths of peace 
and ways of pleasantness, so that our friendship may be like the even 
and ever-flowing stream of deep and gentle motion ? 

Sectional bitterness and party strife have no place here. They dare 
not enter while such holy and hallowed thoughts are filling every 
heart and soul with the highest and holiest desires of the man and 
politician. If we could command this gentle spirit from the skies to 
stay with us, our country would be the gainer, and our statesmen 
would not lose thereby. And now, by these new-made graves, where 
lie the dead statesmen from the North and from the South, from the 
East and from the West, let us swear to put down forever sectional 
strife and bitterness, and bury deep the hatred of the past, and stand 
together under the old flag and be forever one. 

And what shall we say of our departed friend and brother whose 
memory we come to celebrate to-day ? What shall we say ? Say he 
was every inch a man; an honest and honorable man; the noblest 
work of God, so the poet sang, and his numbers told the truth, and 
such a man was Alpheus S. Williams, whose home was in the lovely 
City of the Straits. What shall we say of him ? Say he was the 
brave soldier and safe commander. I look back along the way he 
came and see him as he came from Yale, with the honors of the grim 
old college thick around his brow, flushed with expectations, beam- 
ing with young life and hope; hale and hearty, buoyant and busy 
with the future which lay all before him then, and he ready to enroll 
his name among the countless throng of competitors for the prizes 
to be won or lost in the race of life. I see him as he travels in dis- 
tant lands beyond the seas; I see him return to his native country, 
cultured and refined by contact with the world beyond; I see him 



step proudly on the wharf of the Utile city of Detroit, then but a 
Western village; I see him pleading with manly eloquence for his 
clients at the bar, in the pride and beauty of his young manhood; I 
behold his dignity on the judicial bench, wisely administering the 
laws of his adopted city and State, kindly and judiciously protecting 
the orphan and the widow. 

I see him under the Stars and Stripes, marching with the boys in 
blue for the plains of Mexico; I see him on the burning sands of that 
torrid land, cheering the weary and fainting soldiers until they march 
triumphantly into the halls of the Montezumas; I see him there in 
the storm of battle, where the coward flees and the hero stands or 
falls; I see him marching home when the contest ended, with his 
good sword untarnished by one ignoble act, but bright and shining 
as the record he had made; I see him, too, in his mature and ripened 
manhood, when he heard his country's cry for help, and came bravely 
forth and stood under the banner of the free, when he went forth in 
defense of the Union to put down the mistaken and misguided men 
who dared to fire upon the flag our fathers loved and gave to us. I 
see in fancy the gleam of his eye amid the storm of battle, at Antie- 
tam and in the line of fire at South Mountain; I see his majestic 
form amid the surging waves of battle, as charge after charge swept 
round Round-top at bloody Gettysburgh, and hear his manly words 
to his brave boys at the city of Atlanta; and I see him beside his 
great captain on that wonderful march to the sea *' when all the world 

wondered." 

And behold him, on his triumphant way through the Carolinas, 
as he swept on to victory and to peace. I hear again the joyful 
bells pealing forth the glad tidings of a Union restored and re-estab- 
lished. 

I look again, and he is coming home with his brave and gallant 
men— all that were left of them. I hear the huzzahs of his people as 
he stands once more in the charming city of his love, as he returned 



8 ws 



58 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLSWORTH ON THE 

to them from the red ftame of battle, crowned with glory; and there 
is no one among all the thousands who throng to meet him but 
delights to do him honor. 

He is their favorite son, and they welcome him with cannon, with 
music and banners and flowers. 

I see him on his way to this Hall, sent here by the voice of his 
people he had so well served before; and I see him returned by an 
overwhelming vote, and from day to day in the quiet and industrious 
discharge of his arduous duties. As a legislator he worked in com- 
mittee and in the House, always at his post, anxious and earnest in 
his labors, as all will testify who knew him well ; and a more devoted 
and diligent friend of the District of Columbia never found his way 
into the Congress of the nation; and the people of the District may 
well deplore his loss, as we know they do. While on my own sick- 
bed I heard the sad tidings of his illness, and soon the startling news, 
"he is dead"; and he was gone. I hear the mournful music of the 
muffled drum, and the solemn dirge from the band floats out upon 
the quiet air. I see the solemn cortege bear away the cold still form 
of our friend to lay it sadly down among those who loved him best, 
because they knew him best. I see the vast throng of tearful souls 
stand round his bier, and listen to the muffled sobs, and sighs, and 
moans from stricken hearts. I see his body laid away by loving 
hands, so tenderly and so touchingly; and the melancholy pageant 
ends, and the curtain falls forever. 

I recall an hour in this House which illustrates most strikingly the 
character of the man whose memory I fain would honor. When the 
silver bill came back to us with the veto of the President, General 
Williams came round to my table and, with that pleasant smile born 
of good-nature we shall remember so long, asked me how I was going 
to vote on the bill, and being answered to sustain the veto, he 
promptly replied, "So shall I; and I am glad I am not to stand 
entirely alone from Michigan." I then said to the General, " I fear 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 59 

you may dig your political grave by thus doing." Drawing himself 
proudly up, he replied: "I think the President is right, and I will 
give him my vote though my political heavfens fall." And whether 
right or wrong, so far as the wisdom of the measure was concerned, 
he was guided in that trying hour not by passion nor by party press- 
ure, but by his well-considered judgment, and no party zeal could 
sway him from the path of duty as he read his duty. And that makes 
the honest man. There speaks the hero who could stand in the bat- 
tle-storm at Gettysburgh with unblanched cheek where the wild shell 
screamed and the bullets sang. Thus acts the brave and honest man 
who knows no fear when in the path of duty listening to the lan- 
guage of an enlightened conscience. 

Thus speaks the man who has such nobility of soul that he can rise 
above the clamor of political strife and stand for his country and his 
country's honor. Such a man is a priceless heritage to any nation, 
and his memory will never die ; his name will be immortal as the 
stars. And such was the man we mourn to-day. May his mantle 
of nobility fall upon others who are to come after him to guide and 
fashion the destinies of the nation. Oh for a Congress of just such 
independent men, loving country more than party. Then the Repub- 
lic would certainly endure. Then the ages as they come and pass 
would brighten and strengthen the golden chain that binds in one 
this sisterhood of States. Then the prosperity and perpetuity of the 
Union would be assured, and we should rest without a single fear as 
to the future glory of the Republic, 

Alpheus S. Williams could sink the poHtician in the man and 
stand above the low and mean ambitions of the petty partisan. He 
could fling aside ambition when his country called; he could with- 
stand the party cry, and stand bravely for that his judgment said 
was truth and right. And such a man is a glory to any nation, and 
it should be proud of him and hasten to crown him as her own. 

I would honor such a man and keep his memory green forever. 



6o ADDRESS OF MR. HAMILTON ON THE 

And such was our hero and statesman who sleeps beside the majestic 

river he loved, in the beautiful city of the dead. 

And we sing to him as he sleeps in the silent land, Tennyson's 

sad farewell to the stream of his youth, slightly transposed, and leave 

him to his rest: 

Flow down grand river to the sea, 

Thy tribute wave deliver ; 
No more by thee his steps shall be, 

Forever and forever. 

Flow, grandly flow, a crystal sea, 

And then a river — 
No more by thee his steps shall be. 

Forever and forever. 

By thee shall sigh thine alder-tree. 

By thee thine aspen quiver; 
And there by thee shall hum the bee, 

Forever and forever. 

A thousand suns shall shine on thee, 

A thousand moons shall quiver — 
No more by thee his steps shall be. 

Forever and forever. 



Address of Mr. j^amilton, of Indiana. 

Mr. Speaker: There is an allegory which has the testimony of 
years as the one unsurpassed in any language. In his cell the grand 
old tinker saw a vision, which has delighted the schoolboy ; and, like 
the Book of Books, is always new and always glorious to the man, 
while it opens up avenues of thought to the scholar and hands down 
along the lines of Time the sonorous old Anglo-Saxon. 

In boyhood the character who was my friend, with whom I loitered 
along the highway and in whose presence I felt that life was sunshine 
and all its paths were paths of peace, was that noble conception of 
Bunyan drawn with a vigorous touch and a bold hand. Old Mr. 
Honest. The only portion of the character which I could not con- 
ceive of as being in keeping with the rest was that Honest must 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF APLHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 6 1 

necessarily be old. I fancied that honesty was always young ; that 
sturdy Mr. Honest, even when about to cross the river, had preserved 
his youthful fire and the vigor of his early mandood. While I passed 
by other noble characters, drawn by that grand untutored English 
artist, I loved to walk by the side of Mr. Honest. 

When I came to know the man who had honored Detroit I felt 
that my early conceptions were right — honesty is always young. 
What is youth ? Some who are young in years are old in misery, 
old by reason of imbecility. There are, however, those who preserve 
through a long line of years that elasticity of thought, that vigor of 
intellect, that strength of mind which are supposed to be the portion 
only of those who are in the meridian of their days. How mysterious 
is this life! The crown of youth encircles the head which must 
shortly fall into the tomb. The imbecility and timidity of age enrobes 
those who are in their early manhood. 

He whom to-day we eulogize had almost attained the full allotted 
period. " The days of our years are threescore years and ten." He 
died at sixty-eight years of age, and yet how firm, how vigorous, 
how constant. He was attracted by the young and daring; he drew 
toward him the youthful and the bold. 

Honesty, nobility of character, seem to preserve the youthful vigor 
even when the shades are gathering in the west. When, full of 
hours, the day of a noble existence draws to a close, those who have 
known and loved its passing moments rejoice that its ending was like 
the evening of the mid-October days of the glorious western land 
which was loved so much. Few and short the gray clouds which 
dimmed the setting. 

A German philosopher conceived of the soul or spirit as springing 
from the tomb as a flower. How gorgeous in tint, how sweet in 
odor, would be the flower which might spring from the grave of the 
noble spirit the ashes of whose body lie in the soil of the State which 
he has so highly honored. 



62 ADDRESS OF MR. HAMILTON ON THE 

Alpheus S. Williams made no speeches in Congress. It was to 
him a marvel that men sent to legislate for the nation would consume 
the time in making and expend vast sums in printing speeches for 
home consumption ; would encumber the Record, which should not 
exceed the size of that of the golden age of American oratory and 
statesmanship, until it now, at each session, swells to six, seven, and 
eight volumes with speeches to which no one listens, and which no 
one reads, and which seem to have been made for the purpose of 
giving cheap wrapping-paper to the village grocer and the country 
newspaper. Does any one suppose that the vigorous intellect which 
was cased in the form known as Alpheus S. Williams could not 
have encumbered the Record with speeches, written in a few even- 
ing hours, which would have successfully vied with the best of those 
made in the Forty-fourth and Forty -fifth Congresses ? But Alpheus 
S. Williams came not to Congress to make speeches for his con- 
stituents alone, to be over the sugar and under the twine, but to vote 
intelligently, to decide uprightly and impartially on great national 
questions. 

Could constituents stand for a few days in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, they would have a different impression regarding the value 
of speeches from that which many members think they now have, 
and would honor the man who made none, and yet who might have 
stood among the foremost of those who make cheap reputation at 
home while retarding legislation and oftentimes neglecting or 'injuring 
the great interests of the country which they were elected to preserve 
and foster. Nor was he in the habit of asking questions for the 
purpose of getting his name in the Record. Nor did he take that 
other cheap and easy method of presenting himself to the public by 
constantly arising to "make a point of order." All of which he 
looked upon as means for the gratification of personal vanity, while 
acting as clogs on necessary legislation. 

Alpheus S. Williams was seldom if ever out of his seat ; knew 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 6;^ 



and weighed the measures which required the action of Congress, 
and formed his own opinions by the clear light of his unclouded 
brain. In my Congressional life it has been my privilege to have 
entered into the most friendly and intimate relations with men who 
would not have allowed a grain to soil the purity of their official 
hands. But yesterday, by my side, sat the man of firm resolves, of 
daring spirt, of most honest intentions. Gold and silver, place and 
power, were no allurements to him when thought, feeling, and action 
were to be bought by them unworthily. Strange anomaly! He 
could hate intensely, and yet no man seems to have entertained feel- 
ings of dislike to him ; sterling honesty hating dishonesty, and yet 
the uprightness not even questioned by those who were denounced. 
Men whom he when living had detested were honored by being 
allowed to touch his coffin when his spirit, separated from his muscle, 
could not resent the insult. 

During the four years which are soon to close I have seen the 
great doors of the portal swing open and seniors . and juniors pass 
through, never to return in the flesh, but always to linger in memory's 
halls until they too shall molder. 

Starkweather, Parsons, Kerr, Caperton, Bogy, Leonard, Morton, 
Quinn, Welch, Douglas, Williams, Hartridge, Schleicher! Of them 
all no grander spirit has crossed the bourn than that of the noble 
gentleman whose name will be mentioned when those of others may 
be forgotten. It is inseparably linked with great events; events 
which will live in the books of the school-boy and in the histories of 
the man; which have been and will be themes for the poet and the 
foundation of the romances of the novehst. Winchester, Cedar 
Mountain, South Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburgh, 
Atlanta, echo back the sound which comes from Vera Cruz and 
Mexico. 

One of the bright spots in my life in Washington is that I have 
known the man who was always the same, always true, always firm, 



64 ADDRESS OF MR. HAMILTON ON THE 

always honest, always consistent. One who could not be turned 
from his convictions even though defeat stared him in the face ; one 
always equal to emergencies which daunted others; one without 
whose aid, together with others like him, events would not have been 
as they are now recorded. The battle of Antietam was fought on 
September 17, 1862. How many names of those who were in the 
Thirty-seventh Congress can now be recalled ? The name of 
Alpheus S. Williams is inseparably connected with the bloody fight 
of Antietam. Even his name might have been swallowed up in the 
general mass of civil and military officers of the time had he not been 
also connected with glorious triumphs of our country on foreign soil. 
He had been on bloody battle-fields before Texas had forgotten that 
the men of the North had determined that their support should be 
given to aid the Lone Star in keeping its place in the galaxy of 
nations. 

Mr. Speaker, the heart of Alpheus S. Williams will never again 
send the warm blood to the hand which once grasped that of his 
friend. Yet why should we weep ? He had almost filled the allotted 
period, near the threescore years and ten, and how nobly those years 
were rounded! 

Ye sigh not when the sun, his course fulfilled. 
His glorious course, rejoicing earth and sky. 

In the soft evening, when the winds are stilled. 
Sinks where his islands of refreshment lie. 

And leaves the smile of his departure, spread 

O'er the warm-colored heaven and ruddy mountain's head. 

Why weep ye, then, for him, who, having won 
The bound of man's appointed years, at last, 

Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done, 
Serenely to his final rest has passed, 

While the soft memory of his virtues yet 

Lingers like twilight hues, when the bright sun is set. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 65 



ADDENDA TO SPEECH OF A. H. HAMILTON, GIVING MILITARY HISTORY OF 
GENERAL ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 

He was enrolled October 18, 1847, and mustered into service December 8, 1847, 
as lieutenant-colonel First Michigan Volunteers. 

Left Detroit, Michigan, in January, 1848, with the second battalion of his 
regiment for Mexico; served with regiment in Mexico to June, 1848, and was 
honorably mustered out therewith at Detroit, Michigan, July 29, 1848. 

He was appointed by the governor of Michigan, in April, 1861, brigadier- 
general of the troops of that State then enlisting for the war, and commanded the 
camp of instruction at Fort Wayne, Michigan, to September, 1861. 

Commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers August 9, to rank from May 17, 
1861, which he accepted August 26, 1861. 

Service : Commanding third brigade, Banks's division. Army of the Potomac, 
from October 8, 1861, to March 20, 1862; first division, Fifth Corps, to April 12, 
1862; first division. Department of the Shenandoah, to June, 1862 ; first division. 
Second Corps, Army of Virginia, to August 9, 1862 ; Second Corps, Army of Vir- 
ginia, to August 31, 1862 ; first division, Second Corps, Army of Virginia, to Sep- 
tember 3, 1862; Second Corps, Army of Virginia, to September 15, 1862; first 
division. Twelfth Corps, to September 17, 1862; Twelfth Corps, to October 20, 
1862; first division, Twelfth Corps, to July i, 1863; Twelfth Corps, to July 4, 
1863; first division, Twelfth Corps, to April 5, 1864; first division, Twentieth 
Corps, to July 28, 1864; Twentieth Corps, to August 28, 1864; first division. 
Twentieth Corps, to November il, 1864; Twentieth Corps, to April 4, 1865; 
commanding with the rank of brevet major-general (brevetted major-general Jan- 
uary 12, 1865, for marked ability and energy, &c.) from January 12, 1865, first 
division. Twentieth Corps, to June 6, 1865, and provisional division to July 27, 
1865, when he proceeded to his home, Detroit, Michigan, to await further orders. 

From September 5 to November 26, 1865, he commanded the Ouchita district. 
Department of Arkansas, and from November 26, 1865, to January 9, 1866, the 
central district. Department of Arkansas. 

Honorably mustered out of service January 15, 1866. He participated in the 
following engagements, namely, Winchester, Virginia, May 24-25, 1862; Cedar 
Mountain, Virginia, August 9, 1862; Antietam, Maryland, September 17, 1862; 
Germania Ford, Virginia, April 29, 1863 ; Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 1-3, 
1863; Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, July 1-3, 1863; Falling Waters, Maryland, 
July 14, 1863; Resaca, Georgia, May 14-15, 1864; New Hope Church, Georgia, 
May 25, 1864; Pine Mountain, Georgia, June 15, 1864; Kenesaw Mountain, 
Georgia, June 22, I864; Peach Tree Creek, Georgia, July 20, 1864; campaigns 
in Georgia and Carolinas; Sherman's march to sea, November, 1864, to April, 
1865; Averysborough, North Carolina, March 16, 1865; and Bentonville, North 
Carolina, March 19, 1865. 



WS 



66 ADDRESS OF MR. STONE ON THE 



^DDRESS OF J\lln, ^TONE, OF ^ICHIGAN. 

Mr. Speaker : It is not with the expectation of adding anything 
to what has already been said by my associates of the many virtues 
and manly qualities of the deceased, but rather for the satisfaction of 
my own feelings, that I rise to add one more brief tribute to the 
worth of my departed colleague. 

My personal acquaintance with General Williams was quite lim- 
ited in time and degree. The eventful history of his life and public 
service has been recited by those who knew him better and more 
intimately. From my brief intercourse and acquaintance with him 
I should say that he was a practical, able, matter-of-fact man, utterly 
abhorring and devoid of all mere pretension. He was laborious, 
careful, and painstaking in the performance of duty ; true to his con- 
victions and firm in his adherence to principle. 

He was not a man much given to speech-making, and he never 
spoke unless he had something to say. His motto seemingly was, 
"be silent unless you can say something better than silence." In 
his place in this House he was never known to resort to the small 
arts of the demagogue. He was sometimes conservative when his 
political associates demanded radical changes in legislation. His 
action was controlled by his own judgment. His life was active. 

He lived and acted at the most important period of our country's 
history, when the events of a century were compressed into a few 
years; and well and faithfully did he perform the duty of citizen- 
ship, and true and ardent was his devotion to his country, her honor, 
and her unity. He was true, just, honest, faithful, and patriotic. 
His was a noble patriotism, a patriotism that invigorates and elevates 
a country by noble acts; that does its duty quietly, bravely, and 
manfully. The world owes much to such true men of courage. It 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 67 



is natural to believe in and to have confidence in them. They com- 
mand the spontaneous homage of all. 

Mr. Speaker, in the beautiful City of the Straits, where the departed 
statesman and general Uved, the bells have tolled their farewell peals, 
the pall, the hearse, and the funeral procession have passed and 
gone. "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust" have been spoken, and to 
her maternal bosom the earth has folded his mortal remains. 

This is the last act of ceremony. Bowing our heads to the will of 
an all-wise Providence, and striving to shun his few faults and emu- 
late his many virtues, we commit the memory of Alpheus S. Will- 
iams to the affection of his friends who loved him, to the gratitude 
of his country he served and defended so well, and to the safe-keep- 
ing of history. He was a brave man, a good citizen, and a sincere 

patriot. 

He locked his lips too close to speak a lie, 

He washed his hands too white to take a bribe. 
His death has called forth the warmest feelings of regret from all 
parts of the State of which he was an honored citizen ; and political 
friends and opponents have united in expressions of admiration of 
his talents, manly worth, and distinguished public service. As ex- 
pressive of the high esteem in which he was held by the State of his 
early adoption, I submit the proceedings had and resolutions adopted 
by the joint convention of both houses of the legislature of the State 
of Michigan on the occasion of the commemoration of his death. 

Resolutions adopted by the senate and house of representatives of the Michigan legislature 
in joint convention assembled, January 29, 1879. 

Mr. Chairman : The joint committee appointed to report resolutions expressive 
of the sense of both Houses on the death of Major-General Alpheus S. Williams 
respectfully report : 

That of the many deserving sons, native and adopted, whom Michigan has been 
called upon to mourn, General Williams stands pre-eminent in illustrating those 
qualities which adorn human character, and which should be the crowning attri- 
butes of the American citizen. 

Coming to our State over forty-two years ago, a cultivated man, fresh from home 
and foreign travel, he commenced that career which endeared him to our people ; 



68 ADDRESS OF MR. STONE ON THE 



and after devoting most of his life to the service of the pubUc, died full of honors 
and years, literally with the harness on, at his post as Representative of the first 
district of our State at Washington. 

Filling successively the positions of judge of probate of Wayne County, recorder 
of the city of Detroit, editor of the Daily Advertiser, lieutenant-colonel of the 
First Michigan Volunteers in the Mexican war, postmaster at Detroit, member of 
the board of education, president of the State military board, and commander of 
the military camp of instruction at Fort Wayne, he acquitted himself in all these 
positions in such a manner as to secure the confidence of his fellow-citizens. 

He had established a reputation as an upright man ; as a journalist who, when 
the tone of our press was low, contributed to its elevation ; as a gallant soldier ; as 
an exact, diligent, and accommodating public servant; as a capable instructor, 
and as a public-spirited citizen. But though in this circumscribed sphere General 
Williams had won public confidence and regard, it was reserved for that hour of 
the nation's travail, the great rebellion, to illustrate tTiose qualities which entitle 
him to the gratitude of the Republic and make his memory a matter of State pride. 

Appointed brigadier-general of volunteers April 17, 1861, he took the field, and 
thenceforward was seldom absent from his command till the war closed. 

Whether at the head of a regiment, a brigade, a division, or a corps ; whether 
on the midwinter march across the AUeghanies, with thermometer below zero, or 
covering the retreat on Winchester with a single regiment before Stonewall Jack- 
son's army ; whether at the head of a corps at Antietam, where one-third of the 
trophies of the day rewarded his efforts, or again at Gettysburgh, where he com- 
manded a corps, or on that fateful and dramatic march from the mountains to the 
sea, we always find him the thoughtful, considejate general, careful of the comfort 
of his men ; the conscientious, stubborn fighter, using all the resources at his com- 
mand; oblivious apparently of his personal deserts, never murmuring at injustice 
to himself, but strenuous and aggressive when those intrusted to his care were its 
object. If his mind had been cast in a less symmetrical mold, and his personal 
ambition not been subordinated to his sense of duty, he might have attained a 
higher rank in the service, but he never could have acquired as firm a hold as he 
possessed upon the aff"ections of his men and the esteem of those who knew him. 

Appointed by President Johnson minister to Salvador, he remained at his post 
until recalled, faithful and vigilant in guarding and sustaining the interests of his 
countrymen and the honor of the flag which he had upheld by his sword. 

Elected twice from the first district to Congress, his course was inspired by the 
purest patriotism, guided by mature intelligence, and characterized by diligent 
and painstaking labor. In no sense a partisan, he dared to differ as a legislator, 
where his conscience so dictated, when to do so implied great fortitude and in- 
volved great personal sacrifice : Therefore, 

Be it resolved, That the death of General Williams calls for an expression of 
sorrow and regret from our people, of more than ordinary character, and that 
such expression should be recognized and emphasized by their representatives 
assembled. 

Second. That in his life, rounded out as it was by so many ennobling qualities, 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 69 



marred by fewer defects than fall to the lot of most, always responsive to the call 
of public duty, equal to every emergency, free from assumption and arrogance, he 
presented the ideal type of the American citizen — in the highest sense a man with- 
out fear and without reproach. 

Third. That the recollection of his many virtues should be held as a legacy more 
valuable than material wealth and his many services held in grateful remembrance 
by the people of this State and the Republic. 

Fourth. That the sympathy of both houses is hereby respectfully tendered to his 
family. 

Fifth. That these resolutions and this preamble be entered on the journal of 
both houses, and copies engrossed and sealed with the seal of the State and for- 
warded, one to his family and one each to our Senators and Representatives in 
Congress. 

T. W. PALMER, 
W. W. DUFFIELD, 

Senate Committee. 
E. W. COTTRELL, 
E. P. ALLEN, 
ANDREW JACKSON, 

House Committee. 



^DDRESS OF yVLR. ^fVlLLIS, OF JTeW JoRK. 

Mr. Speaker : Homage to the dead is a virtue peculiar to no age 
or people. When a friend or companion, even in the ordinary course, 
reaches life's limit, an impulse, honorable to humanity, causes us to 
halt, and with sorrowing hearts measure the loss we have sustained. 
Such is the purpose of this hour. The man whose death we mourn 
in many respects was remarkable ; his loss belongs not alone to us, 
but to the entire country. His life is history. Living in a period 
crowded with grand events, both in war and in peace, it was his 
enviable fortune to identify himself with such of them as yield luster 
undimmed and imperishable upon this country. 

On the 20th day of December last, at the foot of yonder slope, in 
full view of this magnificent Capitol, expired in peace and glory, 
attended by his saddened family and friends, Alpheus S. Williams, 
of Michigan. The verdict of his constituency was reversed by Omnis- 



yo • ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIS ON THE 

cient degree. He was permitted to experience a felicity most accept- 
able to a patriot, to die in the service of a country he idolized. 

He was born in 1810, in the staid and ancient Commonwealth of 
Connecticut, when the Republic was less populous than the States of 
New York and Connecticut are to-day. While he yet lived it swelled 
into the proportions of a vast territorial empire, peopled with more 
than forty millions of freemen. 

Fortune uniformly befriended him. Favored with a collegiate 
education at Yale, where he graduated in 1831, also with a profes- 
sional training at a law school connected with that venerable institu- 
tion ; informed and enlightened by three years of European travel, 
he had rare advantages, which doubtless contributed largely to the 
successes of his subsequent life. 

Soon after his return in 1836, yielding to an adventurous disposition, 
he parted company with the old-fashioned, conservative, slow-travel- 
ing people of his native State and settled in Michigan, then sparsely 
settled by the Caucasian, an outpost of civilization, made it his 
residence for life, and began the practice of the legal profession. 
Whether he was an acute lawyer or eloquent advocate we have no 
means of declaring, but such was his success and such the confidence 
he enjoyed that in less than four years he was a judge of probate, 
then an alderman, then recorder. While holding the latter position, 
controlled by what circumstances I know not, he engaged in a news- 
paper enterprise, becoming both editor and proprietor of the Detroit 
Daily Advertiser, The paper was conducted with ability. His trusts 
he had discharged with satisfaction and credit. 

In 1847 the United States inaugurated hostilities against Mexico. 
The instant the first trumpet-blast invited to arms, this young lawyer 
and editor exemplified the virtues which grace and dignify his after 
life ; he readily sacrificed position, comfort, home, and enlisted for 
the war, was chosen lieutenant-colonel of the First Michigan Volun- 
teers, and during that struggle rendered heroic service, distinguishing 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 7 1 

himself for both prudence and valor. On his return from a campaign 
unexceled in glory, unexampled in success, he was appointed post- 
master of Detroit, and acceptably acted in such capacity for four years, 
ending 1853, after which he served as member of the board of educa- 
tion, devoting himself unselfishly and laboriously to the welfare and 
enlightenment of the young. A few years after, when rebellion 
thundered its echoes and launched its darts at the national life, no 
patriot in the land repaired to the war with hotter zeal than General 
Williams, no one served the Republic with truer faith or more cour- 
ageous devotion, and few with greater ability than he as division and 
corps commander. In death's plenteous harvest he plucked laurels 
at South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburgh, at the siege of 
Atlanta, and in that marvelous march through Georgia from its 
capital to the seaboard. 

He was not only a brave but a patient soldier, never fault-finding, 
never despairing of the Republic. He continued to wield his sword 
until a victory more glorious than any achieved by earth's warriors 
was secure — a Union restored and liberty the heritage of every man, 
woman, and child shadowed by the flag ; a victory accepted as such 
by both victors and vanquished ; a victory of the Republic which in 
the phrase of Rome's great orator is the common parent of us all. 
General Williams possessed a soul unpoisoned by envy, ungalled 
by hate. " He forgot in peace the injuries received in war." 

When peace was pronounced by the glad herald of mercy, and all 
the logical sequences of war were put beyond peril by constitutional 
amendment, he hailed his late foe as brother, unfurled the white 
banner of charity and demanded peace between the sections, insisted 
that we should erect to forgiveness an altar reaching to the skies, 
around which should gather in honest accord the sons of the North 
and the South, and there reverently vow eternal fidelity to liberty 
and Union, 'neath which should be deep-buried all the hates and 
prejudices engendered by opposing systems of labor and intensified 



72 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIS ON THE 

by the fury of a war. To this end he demanded that the Constitu- 
tion's limitations and restraints, disregarded through necessity in war, 
should be restored in peace; that taunts and sneers were unpatriotic, 
ungenerous, and immanly; that a real victory should be grasped by 
extending to every man, whether Federate or Confederate, the hand 
of sincere brotherhood. 

And herein is General Williams especially to be glorified in the 
grateful remembrance of his countrymen; herein he lifted himself 
above the ordinary plane of humanity, and wisely instructed the 
people. None can distrust his patriotism, and yet he seized with 
equal readiness the hand loyal and disloyal, and mourned alike over 
loyal and disloyal slain. He deemed valor and self-sacrifice supreme 
virtues, though exemplified in a cause he condemned. He accorded 
to others that honesty of conviction which was an attribute of his 
own life, recognizable in all his acts. God grant that in this respect 
his example, like that of Wolfe's, "may have a magnet's force," and 
be heeded by our entire people; and then we shall enjoy a peace 
which even angels will celebrate — a certain pledge of Union and 
liberty for ages. 

Mr. Speaker, the virtues of General Williams were well under- 
stood. His life belies the doubtful proverb that " republics are 
ungrateful." Immediately after his muster-out from the Army he 
was appointed commissioner to adjust the military claims of Missouri. 
This duty, requiring honesty, judgment, and capacity, was most 
thoroughly and satisfactorily executed. Soon after he was commis- 
sioned minister of the United States to Salvador, which trust he dis- 
charged with credit and decorum. Upon his return to his home new 
honors were accorded him. He was elected a member of Congress 
for two terms, and would have been to a third had not a disruption 
occurred in his own party, doubtless due to his steadfast adherence 
to what he believed to be sound principles of finance. 

While here he rejoiced in the esteem and confidence of all his 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 73 

associates. He served upon important committees and was charged 
with grave responsibilities. Conscientiously and efficiently he bore 
them. In legislative life his most noticeable trait was independence, 
in which he rose far above many supposed to be intellectually his 
superiors. He was wedded to his party, but did not worship it ; he 
recognized it simply as an agency through which just measures of 
policy could be enforced in the administration of government. When 
in his judgment it failed to subserve this purpose he disregarded its 
behests. He never yielded to the command of a caucus the right to 
exercise his individual judgment or permitted his manhood to be 
cramped and warped by party discipline — a characteristic which 
thoughtful men will not hesitate to commend as a virtue, though hot 
partisans are apt to impute it as a fault. 

That party cannot endure long or nobly which exacts unthinking 
obedience from its votaries and condemns their consciences to serfdom. 
He who hesitates to protest when his party is wrong is its enemy, 
though wearing the guise of friend. Heed, then, this hint, the lesson 
his life enforces : break the chains of partisanship whenever the honor 
and welfare of the Republic requires ; subordinate always party policy 
to truth and justice. Another virtue inherent in his character, and 
consequently a feature of his political career, was his intense hatred 
of that despicable compound of hypocrisy and selfishness known as 
the demagogue. Fawning and sycophancy, those odious factors in 
American politics, he was an entire stranger to. Always manly and 
outspoken, it was enough for him to have a consciousness that a 
measure was right or wrong to support or to oppose it. 

He did not flatter "his sworn brother, the people," or put on the 
gown of humility to gain attachment and acquire power. Without 
question he valued popularity, but only as a requital for faithful, 
conscientious service. Possessing real virtues, he had no occasion to 
affect or parade pretended ones. Many of our public men are as 
servile to popular caprice as was Polonius to Hamlet, when he could 



ID ws 



74 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIS ON THE 

see in a cloud, according to suggestion, a camel, or a weasel, or a 
whale. Oh, that none would be deemed worthy high station save 
steadfast patriots, who in the exercise of sworn duties disdain the 
atrocious, destructive arts of demagogism. Because in General 
Williams can be found a true pattern for such reform have I given 
prominence to this loud-speaking virtue transparent • in his life of 
laborious and patriotic service. 

The private life of General Williams was not less admirable than 
his public career; his domestic qualities not less sterling and genuine 
than his public virtues. He was a man, full grown, exulting in that 
even threefold development — heart, intellect, and body — which God 
intended should be attained. 

As a friend of Alpheus S. Williams, as a comrade of his in battle, 
as his companion in this House, I welcome this opportunity of esti- 
mating his worth as a citizen, as a soldier, as a legislator. 

If we accept the Epicurean maxim — 

Post mortem, nulla voluptas, 

it would behoove us to shed unavailing tears that our brother has 
departed. If death were the end of all, indeed our grief would be 
inconsolable; but the creed of the heathen has yielded to one higher 
and holier. We rejoice in the belief, and have a thorough conception 
of its truth, that — 

There is no death! What seems so is transition; 

This hfe of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 

Whose portal we call death. 

Let us, rather than indulge a sorrow that profiteth not, recall him 
as that friend who never betrayed a friendship; as that patriot who 
welcomed danger whenever his country was imperiled; as that citizen 
who, whether in private or public life, discharged with fidelity every 
trust; as that Christian who throughout his life exemplified a practical 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 75 

Christianity; finally, as a man courageous, honest, true, whose char- 
acter is marred by no taint and whose career reflects every virtue. 

It can be justly said of him he was born not merely to fill up an 
empty space on the earth, but for a purpose; that his existence was 
not an idle vanity, but a real boon to mankind. We may conceive 
that in bidding adieu to the world our friend in ecstacy declared: 

'Tis a blessing to live, but a greater to die; 
And the best of the world is its path to the sky. 

It is fashionable in this world of ours when one passeth away to 
descant in this melancholy strain : "When his body perisheth, man 
is no more; he fades from memory, and it is as though he had not 
been," There is no warrant for this mournful philosophy in any law, 
physical or moral. In the economy of God what is good cannot die. 
Good actions are seeds deep sown, and, as Southey says : 

Sometimes the shoot is choked with weeds or withers on a stone ; 

But in a kindly soil it strikes its root 

And flourisheth, and bringeth forth abundant fruit. 

It is no mean and vulgar condition to be born in the image of a 
God. Alpheus S. Williams so upheld himself as not to shame 
that image. Therefore — 

He lives in glory, and his speaking dust 

Has more of life than half its breathing moulds. 



^DDRESS OF M.R. ^LEMONS, OF ^RKANSAS. 

Mr. Speaker: If the name and fame of Alpheus S. Williams 
were not the common heritage of the American people, I should on 
this occasion content myself simply by uncovering my head and 
remaining silent as the mournful cortege passes. Were those who 
loved him most, and who now vent their woes in secret, present to 



76 ADDRESS OF MR. SLEMONS ON THE 

speak, I would not come between them and the dead hero. Sir, in 
one short month the darkest shadow of widowhood and the deepest 
wail of orphanage which ever entered this Hall has been seen and 
heard by all of us. In that brief space of time the startling announce- 
ment "he is dead," like the fire-bell by night, has broken upon this 
House four times, awakening and calling us again to witness the 
cumulative evidence that every beating pulse is an additional note 
in the funeral march to the great hereafter, about which we believe 
so much and know so little, and that none may escape the remorse- 
less enemy of all life; the kingon his throne, the peasant in his hovel, 
are alike doomed. 

And that nightly we pitch our moving tent 
A day's march nearer home. 

Sir, I keenly distrust my ability to express in fitting terms, with 
the barren language at my control, my high appreciation of the 
heroic hfe of Alpheus S. Williams. Whether at the head of his 
conquering columns, cheered on by the rallying cry of his comrades, 
or side by side with his counciling brothers in this Hall, his every 
act was characterized by a devotion to the right. He was as retiring 
in council as he was conspicuous in war, at all times retaining a 
strong hold upon the loftier affections of the citizen and the soldier. 
When fratricidal war had ended, his hand no longer grasped the 
blade, but seized the flag of his country beneath and around which 
the conquering and the conquered could rally and forget the terrible 
past. 

In him was beautifully blended the sublime courage of the soldier 
and the exalted patriotism of the statesman. In him the partisan 
was lost in the patriot; the hand that struck the conquering blow 
reached forth to rescue the vanquished from the despoiler. 

And now, while all that is mortal of Alpheus S. Williams rests in 
a lonely grave, drowned by the storms of winter, he is present and 
lives in every heart in which the sound of a generous footfall finds 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 77 

a generous welcome. He bivouacs on that eternal camping-ground, 
awaiting the verdict of stern but impartial history. 

It is not, sir, for me to enter the charmed circle of the domestic 
hearth-stone to inquire whether he contributed to the luster of those 
gentle and lofty virtues which cluster there; this I leave to the faith- 
ful biographer who may by courtesy inquire of the stricken ones of 
the domestic life of the husband and father. 

Although the chain that bound him to us has been broken, still its 
dissevered links lie in sparkling ruin about us. The unlettered peas- 
ant may rush to battle with a death-menacing impetuosity, his faith- 
ful cheek unblanched, while the treacherous statesman may falter 
when confronted with a solemn public duty. The head that is turned 
by the laurels of the soldier will bow at the shrine of power. The 
civic chieftain who retires amid the plaudits of a grateful people wins 
a triumph much loftier than the battle-scarred veteran of a hundred 
fields returning amid the greetings of a maddened populace. This 
highest ambition our friend had achieved; this assured he "laid him 
down to die," and while frail dust that furnished him a dwelling- 
place for so long now rests secure from the bolts of war, I trust his 
good name is ransomed from the breath of calumny. 

A hero in the cause of truth 

And elemental strife, 
His armor buckled on in youth 

He laid aside with life. 

Thus has fallen another of the gallant spirits who carried the flag 
of our country to the gates of Mexico, and laid at the feet of an un- 
grateful nation the glittering empire on the Pacific slopes. And, 
though he is dead, his appeals for justice to his intrepid companions 
of 1846 will linger near until the hisses of scorn with which his com- 
rades are met shall be silenced, and long-delayed justice be meted 
out to them. 

At a time like this the country could illy spare one like him. He 
had the courage to rebuke tyranny in the ruler and licentiousness in 



78 ADDRESS OF MR. SLEMONS. 

the people, and for which he was ostracised pohtically by the people 
for whom he had given and received so many blows. 
He is dead. 

Can it be the manly voice, 

Whose tones so oft have stirred 
And bid the patriot's heart rejoice, 

Shall never more be heard ? 

The Speaker. The question, then, is upon the adoption of the 
resolutions offered by the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Hubbell]. 

The question being taken, the resolutions were unanimously agreed 
to; and then, in accordance with the last resolution, the House (at 
ten o'clock and thirty-five minutes p. m.) adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE 



February 21, 1879. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. George 
M. Adams, its Clerk, communicated to the Senate the intelUgence of 
the death of Mr. Alpheus S. Williams, late a member of the House 
from the State of Michigan, and transmitted the resolutions of the 
House thereon. 

Mr. Ferry. I move that the business of the Senate be suspended 
that the resolutions of the House of Representatives announcing the 
death of Mr. Williams, a Representative in that body from the State 
of Michigan, be read in order that fitting tribute be paid to the pub- 
lic virtues and private worth of the deceased. 

Mr. Withers. I withdraw the motion for an executive session. 

Mr. Edmunds. I yield to its being withdrawn. 

Mr. Ferry. I ask that the resolutions of the House be read. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

In the House of Representatives, 

February 20, 1879. 

Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret of the death 
of Hon. Alpheus S. Williams, a member of this House from the 
State of Michigan. 

Resolved, That as a testimony of respect to his memory the officers 
and members of this House will wear the usual badge of mourning 
for the space of thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the 
Clerk of this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of 
these proceedings to the Senate, and that as a further mark of respect 
to the memory of the deceased this House do now adjourn. 

Mr. Ferry. Mr. President, in view of the resolutions just read, I 

79 



8o ADDRESS OF MR. FERRY ON THE 

send to the desk and move the adoption of the resolutions which I 
ask to have read. 

The Presiding Officer. The Senator from Michigan moves the 
adoption of the resolutions which will be read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate receives with sorrow the announcement 
of the death of Hon. Alpheus S. Williams, late a member of the 
House of Representatives from the State of Michigan, and tenders 
to the family and kindred of the deceased the assurance of sympathy 
under their sad bereavement. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect for the memory of the deceased 
the members and officers of the Senate will wear the usual badge of 
mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate be directed to transmit 
to the family of General Williams a certified copy of these resolu- 
tions. 



^DDREss OF Mr. Ferry, of Michigan, 

Mr. President : Like a consecration to the living is the remem- 
brance of the dead. This Capitol, these Halls, where the strong 
pulses of the nation beat, are hallowed by the memories of distin- 
guished men who have devoted their best powers to the service of 
their country and for the welfare of mankind. As we stand here to- 
day the shades of the departed seem gathering around us. Forms 
and faces reappear to look once more upon the theater where they 
acted conspicuous part in the history of the RepubUc. 

To the roll of patriot citizens we are now called to add another 

name — 

One of the few, the immortal names. 
That were not born to die — 

General Alpheus Starkie Williams. He was born in Saybrook, 
Connecticut, September 20, 1810; graduated from Yale College in 



1831 ; was a student of law at New Haven for two years thereafter, 
and for three years following traveled extensively in Europe. On 
his return from abroad he moved to Detroit and became a member of 
the bar in that city. While not yet thirty years old he was chosen 
judge of probate for Wayne County, and for four years ably and sat- 
isfactorily discharged the duties of his office. He was alderman of 
Detroit in 1843, and recorder of that city in 1844. He was proprie- 
tor and editor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser from 1843 to 1848. 

For many years he was connected with a number of local organi- 
zations of his adopted city, always to the close of life retaining the 
confidence and esteem of his associates. He was the founder and 
first com'mander of the Detroit Light Guard at a time when public 
apathy in military affairs was almost unbroken, and to him, perhaps 
more than to any other, was due the life and discipline of the militia 
system of the State. He was made lieutenant-colonel of the First 
Michigan Volunteer Regiment in the Mexican war. He held the 
office of postmaster at Detroit from 1849 to 1853; was a member of 
the Detroit board of education in i856-'57, and was also president of 
the military State board and commander of the military camp of in- 
struction at Fort Wayne. On the surrender of Fort Sumter in April, 
1861, he was among the first to answer to his country's call. Early 
commissioned by President Lincoln a brigadier-general of volunteers 
in the Army of the Union, when the life of the nation was in peril 
he moved in the van of its defenders. He commanded the Twelfth 
Army Corps in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettys- 
burgh, and the Twentieth Corps in the siege of Atlanta, and thence- 
forward on the famous march to the sea and the closing campaign of 
the Carolinas. 

After the grand review at Washington he was ordered to the com- 
mand of a military district in Arkansas, and while at home on leave 
in June, 1866, was honorably discharged. Soon after he was ap- 
pointed by President Johnson on the commission to examine the war 

II ws 



claim, of the State of Missouri, and in the autumn of that year was 
sent as minister resident to the RepubHc of Salvador. This honorable 
station was held till December, 1869, In 1874 he was elected a Rep- 
resentative to Congress from the first district of Michigan, and was 
re-elected in 1876 by a most flattering vote of his constituents. On 
his entrance in the House of Representatives he was made chairman 
of the Committee for the District of Columbia, which difficult and re- 
sponsible position he held to the day of his death. He was presid- 
ing over his committee when smitten with the malady which ended 
his life. 

From this bare outline of a career of nearly seventy years may we 
not safely judge of the nature and character of the man, his varied 
experience, his notable ability, his unswerving integrity, his stainless 
honor, his restless energy, his sternness of purpose, his fidelity to duty, 
his inflexible patriotism, his rare unselfishness, his gentleness of spirit 
and generosity of soul. The story of all this is treasured in the ar- 
chives of various organizations, courts of law, editor's sanctum, and 
municipal, State, and national governments, but more than all in the 
grief of a stricken family and in the sympathizing hosts of friends, his 
companions in arms, and in the civic honors bestowed by a grateful 
people. 

The citizen whose death can make a nation mourn, justly deserves 
the title of noble manhood. His obsequies, both at this Capital, 
whose people he had served so well, and in his adopted State and 
city, where they knew him best, and where nothing was left undone 
to pay fitting tribute to his fame, all tell of the high esteem in which 
he was held by his fellow-countrymen. 

The noble letter of the General of the Army, written after his last 
parting with the dead soldier, bears ample testimony to this. Gen- 
eral Thomas wrote of him : " There is one man on whom I can always 
depend, that solid old fighter. General Williams." The men in rank 
and file with whom he marched and bivouacked through four long 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. S^ 

years of bloody war, and who loved the very ground on which he 
trod, tell us what they thought of him when with an impulse they 
joined to seize the fondest title of the Roman Pontiff and place it on 
their general's brow. The sages of the State, men who had been his 
rivals as well as those who were his allies in every popular contest, 
vied with one another to do him public reverence; and, to complete 
his praise, the people of this District, gathering around his bier, re- 
solve to lay upon his breast the garland of their gratitude. What 
nobler proof of merit could the expiring patriot have ? 

When a man through a long life of ceaseless activity shows himself 
equal to every emergency he is called to meet, when he feels no aspi- 
ration but that of fidelity to his trust, the good of his country, and 
the happiness of his kind, when such a man in a time of severe press- 
ure and in an age of speculation, can rise and say, " I cannot leave 
my children the wealth of gold, but I can and will leave them an 
untarnished name"; and when from all sides and from every quarter, 
with one mind and with one voice, it is affirmed that he has kept his 
word, I know not what others may think, but for myself I must as- 
cribe to such a man the meed of mental and moral greatness. 

Order is Heaven's first law, and this confessed, 
Some are and must be greater than the rest. 

Greater it may be in rank or office, but not greater in all the ele- 
ments which make up a sterling manhood. That love of order which 
has been impressed upon American institutions is that which digni- 
fies our nature and rests uponen during foundations. The Republic 
has been the prolific mother of men who have adorned the highest 
station and who hav^e met the demands of the honored place to which 
a gracious Providence has assigned them. Such an one was the man 
for whose memory I speak to-day. There is here no room for parti- 
san feeling or words, nor if there were, would I, if I could, any cher- 
ish or invoke. We are Americans all, sons of a common country, 
rejoicing in the achievements of a world-embracing brotherhood, and 



holding up for emulation every conspicuous example of the spirit of 
our institutions, and for imitation every worthy type of the American 
people. In analyzing the qualities of such a citizen we most readily 
trace the influences of his youth, the forces by which he grew to man- 
hood, and the events that distinguished and completed his life. He 
came of the early New England Puritan stock, a stock which flip- 
pant critics delight to stigmatize and decry, but if there is any one 
element in our national race that has contributed to the greatness 
and stability of the Republic we must surely find it in the simple 
habits, the manly virtues, and stern religious ' faith of that same old 
Puritan origin. Educated in the sentiments and convictions of such 
a community, and imbibing the very spirit of institutions which con- 
fer so much of liberty with so much of self-restraint, what else was 
he to do, when in maturer years the storm arose that rocked the na- 
tion to its very center, but to enlist as soldier and die a patriot. 

That storm, fanned by no man nor set of men, by no party nor 
clique of party, by no State nor body of States, but driven by the col- 
lision of elements which no earthly power could control, compelled 
many to feel and deplore the cause, while unable themselves to resist 
the force that made them a part and portion of the destructive tem- 
pest. Among them all none had a keener insight or a clearer com- 
prehension than this heroic man who in the circles of private friend- 
ship was gentle and yielding as a child, but when danger threatened 
threw himself among the foremost, and lion-hearted rode in the dead- 
liest of the strife. 

Though he rose from the citizen soldiery and had not the prestige 
of a rank in the regular Army, notwithstanding he fancied not the 
grim visage of war, but rather chose the arts and tranquillities of peace, 
yet from the moment that he saw the Union must be saved at whatso- 
ever cost, he never for an instant faltered nor followed. It mattered 
little to him to what post of duty or danger he might be assigned ; 
wherever he was he did the work before him and did it with all his 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 85 

might. In winter's frost and summer's heat, over northern mountains 
or across southern morasses, in the rapid transit, the deadly siege, 
and charge of ghastly battle, he was ever ready, ever true, always calm, 
an inspiration to his comrades, and a stalwart of defense. Through 
the whole of that great uprising, the enthusiasm of partings and mist 
of tears, of marshaling hosts, of weary marches, of bloody strife, of 
pains and griefs which made the very heart of the nation sick, he 
firmly held his way, while not a shadow of doubt nor suspicion ever 
fell upon him. His pathway is as clear as the morning light, and 
when the conflict was over and the Union saved, like a hero of the 
noblest type he laid aside the sword and gracefully returned to the 
pursuits of civil life. Who can tell the measure of his example in 
this single fact ? It was the surprise of Europe that half a million 
men — the veterans of a gigantic war — should silently fold their tents, 
lay down their arms, and turn away to walks of civic life so well con- 
tent. Nor was he less conspicuous in the punctillious care, ability, 
and fidelity with which he accomplished the tasks which subsequent 
occasions imposed upon him. In his mission to Central America and 
in his Congressional career he displayed qualities which have endeared 
him to all with whom he had to do. 

When he assumed the chairmanship of the House Committee for 
the District of Columbia it was at a time of transition in the affairs of 
the District and was a trust taxing the energies of the stoutest heart. 
From every quarter arose the murmur of dissatisfaction, allegation, 
distrust, and confusion. The people groaned under burdens suddenly 
cast upon them. All confidence was undermined and the cloud of 
adversity hung over the troubled community In this difficult, and 
I may add formidable condition of things, this chairman of the 
House committee, by his honesty, patience, urbanity, and. fairness, 
gained to himself the public confidence and respect. He showed 
himself the zealous worker, the wise counselor; the friend and father 
of this community. It was amid the toils and cares of his committee- 



86 ADDRESS OK MR. FERRY ON THE 

room, which had become almost hke the shrine of the people's faith, 
that he sank beneath the stroke against which at last there is no shield 
for man. 

General Williams was ever the courteous gentleman, the gener- 
ous friend, the magnanimous partisan. He never descended to arts 
that are vulgar and mean. He held his superiors always in respect, 
and to his inferiors he was ever affable and kind. Thoughtless of 
himself, he was scrupulously careful of the interests of others, and 
especially of the poor and weak. The kindness of his nature broke 
out on every side. In the five years of his editorial life he scarcely 
ever forgot the dignity of his j)rofession or the responsibility of that great 
power which an untrammeled press wields in a free land like ours. 
The chicanery and venality which always mar instead of helpthe jour- 
nalism of the day filled him with dismay. Well would it be for all who 
aspire to wield an influence through the agency of the press to imi- 
tate his virtues and take wholesome lesson from his eminent example. 

No man, indeed, is free from imperfections that mar our common 
nature ; and so I do not speak of him as above all criticism. What- 
ever there may be, if any, of that, it can never obscure the radiance 
of his good qualities, the splendor of his devotion to the highest wel- 
fare of his country, and the share he took in those heroic services 
which saved the Union and restored concord and happiness to the 
Republic of which he was so proud. 

In his death the nation has been bereaved, and Michigan, my own 
honored State, whose cherished people know so well how to value 
and how to reward the services of faithful sons ; and that City of the 
Straits, in whose sacred Elmwood his ashes now repose ; and the 
stricken family where, most of all, he was beloved — all, all, most 
deeply mourn his loss. Happy shall we be if at the close of a life as 
eventful as his we may leave behind us as dear a memorial and a 
name as precious in the grateful and undying affection of those who 
shall survive us. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 87 



^DDRESS OF yV\.R. pAWES, OF ^VIaSSACHUSETTS. 

Mr. President : General Williams was of New England stock 
and training. Born in the old town of Saybrook, Connecticut, in 
1810, of lineage going back in the purest Puritan blood to the ear- 
liest settlers of one of the oldest and straitest of the towns of that 
Commonwealth, he acquired his early education after the goodly 
manner of that time, under the parental roof and in the country 
school-house. By industry and diligence outgrowing the opportuni- 
ties thus offered, by the help of recitations to the minister of the 
town and the occasional select school, he was fitted for Yale College 
at the age of seventeen, and graduated from that institution at 
twenty-one. Two years at the law school in New Haven and three 
years of subsequent travel in Europe finished his course of prepara- 
tion for active life. Henceforth and somewhere not as yet deter- 
mined was to be tried in the conflict of life what manner of man 
would come of such muscle thus trained. 

It is obvious that under auspices like these at best very Httle could 
have been gathered for future use which did not come of untiring 
labor, and that toil was to be, in an uncommon degree, the measure 
of acquisition. And yet these apparently scanty opportunities were 
no mean instrumentality in fitting for his future one to whom men 
and things from the habits of his mind and the circumstances of 
after life were, more than books, to be his teachers. The little town 
in which he was born, hardly seven miles by six, one among hun- 
dreds such in New England, was an arsenal for the equipment with 
all practical and useful weapons and armor of men going forth to 
pull down and build up, to war with old errors and enforce new truths 
wherever they should pitch their tent. This little town had been, 
as it is still, for more than a hundred and fifty years a republic or 



pure democracy, governed in all its local affairs by laws of its own 
making, quite as clearly defined and as sensible as any we are en- 
gaged in enacting here. Twice each year all its citizens assembled 
in town meeting for debate, for deliberation, and for the determina- 
tion of what they deemed the public good, and for the choice of 
officers to enforce their enactments, conducting all things with the 
authority and dignity of a parliament. Into this school the youth 
was led by his father, and in it, listening and learning, he grew up to 
manhood a legislator. Its people were soldiers as well as legislators. 
For near two hundred years toiling in the field with weapons of 
defense in one hand, or in fortification, still standing within the 
limits of the town, defending their homes, first from the savages of 
the wilderness and afterward from those at war with their country, 
they transmitted in their blood and inspired by their example the 
love of military life and pursuits in all their young men. Over all 
this life religion, as understood in that day, maintained a strict and 
sleepless watch; and all the people squared their daily walk and 
conversation by its teachings. "The Saybrook platform" was the 
formula into which the really liberal and all-embracing principles of 
their religion had been cramped and crowded; but, nevertheless, 
they, young and old, subscribed and maintained it with a simple and 
sincere faith. 

This was the school in which the boyhood of General Williams 
was passed, and thus equipped in that education which comes from 
the practical conduct of affairs, supplemented with the advantages of 
college life and foreign travel, this young man at twenty-six sought in 
the new and unpeopled West a field of labor not open to him among 
the old and established institutions of his native State. He turned 
from the old to the new — left what had been to join those who were 
to shape what was yet to be. How much he took with him and how 
well prepared he was to take rank among the conditores gentium who 
forty years ago marched out of New England and other of the old 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 89 



Northern States well-nigh like an army, and took possession of the rich 
opportunities and grappled with the unmeasured possibilities then 
dimly recognized in the West, all his after life has borne ample testi- 
mony. He made his home and begun his life-work at Detroit while 
Michigan was yet a Territory. There were scarcely one hundred 
thousand inhabitants where now are near two millions in a great and 
powerful State represented in the national House of Representatives 
by eight members ; a State whose limits embrace and whose institu- 
tions cover a domain twelve times as great as the State which gave 
him birth — an empire amid a system of empires wholly unknown in 
that day. In the service of this people he began and ended the work 
allotted to him to do ; and in that work the preparation af his early 
manhood told like equipment and discipline of the soldier before en- 
tering action. He started out from the vantage-ground of experience 
in practical affairs under institutions which had borne the test of trial, 
and contributed largely from their grandest elements in the building 
up of new ones among the people with whom he had come to dwell. 

As the State increased in population and wealth he was constantly 
called into her service in every variety of public trust, civil, military, 
and judicial. He stood with her young men, as his ancestors had 
done before him, in defense of her borders against the Indians. He 
led her volunteers in the Mexican war, and won renown as the com- 
mander of a corps on the batde-fields of the rebellion. • He repre- 
sented the nation at foreign courts in the diplomatic service of his 
country, and his State in the Congress of the United States. 

Whatsoever position of trust he filled, to whatever post of honor 
or danger he was called, or office of difficulty or responsibility he 
assumed, courage, ability, and fidelity stamped all he did. His last 
service was as a Representative in Congress, and in that work he 
died. We are witnesses to his people of his conscientious discharge 
of every duty devolving on him as their Representative. We know, 
too, the moderation and wisdom of his counsel, and the large and 



go ADDRESS OF MR. COCKRELL ON THE 

salutary influence he exerted, but we cannot measure the loss his 
State and the nation have suffered in his death. 

General Williams commanded the esteem and won the regard of 
all who knew him. The soldier in the camp, on the march, and in 
the peril of battle, looked up to, loved, trusted, followed, and fought 
for him with absolute devotion. His neighbors were his friends, his 
fellow-citizens were his companions, and his associates walked arm 
and arm with him. He was the charm of the social circle, and was 
welcomed at every feast. Some of us well remember one of these 
occasions not long since which crowds into the recollections of this 
hour; an occasion when, with delightful simplicity and gladness of 
spirit, the venerable statesman, laying aside for the time his years, 
became the enthusiastic student, and, like the old soldier, recounted 
the contests and conflicts of long-gone college days, captivating all 
listeners and winning all hearts. 

We stand to-day at the end, looking back upon a long life rounded 
out with labor diligently performed and duties faithfully discharged. 
Those among whom that life began and was fitted for its work join 
those for whom its matured and ripened faculties were spent, in pay- 
ing tribute to its worth, and in mourning that it is ended. 



^DDRESS OF yVlF^ poCKRELL, OF MISSOURI. 

Mr. President: General Alpheus S. Williams, the gentleman, 
friend, patriot, and soldier, has traversed the appointed pathway of 
Hfe on earth, met the all-conquering foe of man, and passed from 
the labors, duties, and responsibilities of life to the silent grave. To- 
day the Senate, one branch of the Congress of which he was a use- 
ful and honored member, turns from its pressing duties to pay a 
fitting tribute to the life, services, and memory of the departed legis- 
lator. 

The life he led and the services he performed are all the legacies 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 91 

he could bequeath to his surviving countrymen. In fact they are 
the only legacies any of us can leave. When we examine these leg- 
acies and find that the life has been active, earnest, exemplary, and 
consistent, and the services well-timed, practical, and useful, we 
hold them in kindly remembrance and pay willing tribute and point 
to them as foot-prints on the sands of time. 

Foot-prints that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, shall take heart again. 

Historians and biographers love to trace in beautiful colors the 
lineage of those whose lives have been heroic and whose services 
have been eminent and patriotic. 

Grace is added to virtue when it descends from sire to son; and 
the legacy of a spotless name is bequeathed with increasing splendor 
to succeeding heirs. 

The common-sense of the American people discriminates with 
marked sagacity and exactness between the counterfeit and the true. 
The veneration natural to us resents the fraud of a mere name with- 
out the real worth it should represent, and turns with lofty disdain 
from him who attempts to gild vice and weakness with the luster of 
his name prostituted in its use; but bows with deference, sealing its 
legitimacy, when that name adds to the virtues first distinguishing it. 

The longest pedigree must have a beginning, and the chief glory 
belongs to the founder of a family name, whose impress of character 
descendants love to preserve. The glory of honoring and perpetu- 
ating a name can never be superior to the glory of first drawing it 
from obscurity. 

Our peculiar and distinctive system of government is continually 
bringing out in bold relief the comparatively unknown to positions 
of honor, usefulness, and influence among their countrymen, and 
thus inspiring every youth with the truth that " every man is the 
architect of his own fortune," and that, although his name was never 



92 ADDRESS OF MR. COCKRELL ON THE 

borne with "chant of heraldry" along the aisles of the drowsy past, 
he has before him the superior glory "of being born only of himself" 
and of attaining every honor and position merited by his virtues and 
worth. General Williams was born at Saybrook, Connecticut, Sep- 
tember 20, 1810; graduated from Yale College in 1831, chose the 
law for his profession, and removed to Michigan, his adopted State, 
in 1836, and made the city of Detroit his home, and was honored 
by his fellow-citizens with various positions of honor and trust. 
When his native country became involved in war with Mexico he 
volunteered his services and became lieutenant-colonel of the First 
Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and served to the close of 
the war with credit and honor, and then turned again to the pursuits 
of peaceful life. 

In 186 1, when the angry clouds of civil war and fratricidal strife 
swept across the horizon of the Federal Union, indicating the then 
impending conflict and fearful struggle between the States — on the 
one hand for the perpetual maintenance of the Union, and on the 
other for the establishment of a separate confederacy of States 
within the territorial dominion of the Union, and yet independent of 
it — General Williams, true and faithful to the interests of his State 
and section, and in natural conformity to the feelings legitimately 
springing from his rearing, his kindred, friendships, associations, and 
interests, and patriotically loving the Union and holding in honored 
veneration the old flag, around which clustered so many glorious 
ancestral memories, voluntarily tendered his services to his country 
and accepted from the governor of his State the commission of brig- 
adier-general of the State troops then enlisting and organizing for 
the war, and materially aided in this work. August g, 1861, Presi- 
dent Lincoln appointed him a brigadier-general of volunteers, and 
he at once entered upon the dangers and hardships of the soldier's 
life. 

Durina; the whole war General Williams was ever found in the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 93 

front ranks of the Union Army — where the rattle of musketry was 
thickest, the roar of artillery and the shrieking of bursting shells 
the loudest, and the gleam of the drawn sabers the brightest. He 
commanded a brigade, then a division, and then a corps; and partici- 
pated in Ihe battles of Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chan- 
cellorsville, Gettysburgh, and in those of the campaign of General 
Sherman from Dalton to Atlanta, and of " Sherman's march to the 
sea," and subsequently in North Carolina. On January 12, 1865, 
he was brevetted a major-general "for marked ability and energy," 
&c., and was honorably mustered out of the service on January 15, 
1866. In this fiery ordeal, which tried men's souls. General Will- 
iams proved himself a true soldier and gendeman in the broadest 
sense of the terms — intelligent, energetic, earnest, and faithful, cool, 
brave, and chivalrous, kind, generous, and magnanimous. 

For four long and eventful years he followed the flag of the Union, 
"the emblem of her chosen land," and at the end "beheld the flag, 
my flag, the stars and stripes, the eagle and the shield, waving in 
everlasting honor above all hate or fear," and lived to see all the 
States occupying their normal places in the Federal Union under the 
one Constitution, an undivided country, a united people, and an in- 
destructible Union of sovereign States under one imperishable Con- 
stitution, to his patriot heart and hopes a grand and glorious consum- 
mation. So may it prove to all our hearts, hopes, and realizations. 

Since the war General Williams has served his country in various 
important positions, always with marked ability, energy, and success, 
and closed his life while a member of the House. 

General Williams's life has been an exceedingly eventful, inter- 
esting, and instructive one. Glance at its prominent events: a law- 
yer, judge of probate for his county, alderman and recorder of his 
city, proprietor and editor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser, lieuten- 
ant-colonel of the First Michigan Volunteer Infantry in the Mexican 
war, postmaster and a member of the board of education of his city, 



94 ADDRESS OF MR. PLUMB ON THE 

a brigadier-general and by brevet a major-general in the Union 
Army, a commissioner to adjust the military claims of Missouri, a 
candidate for governor, a minister resident to the Republic of Sal- 
vador, and a member of the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses. 
In every place and at all times his life was active, earnest, and con- 
sistent, and his services were well-timed, practical, and eminently 
useful. 

His heroism and his services will be traced by future historians in 
charming colors and loving terms. He has founded a family name 
which will live in sacred remembrance for years to come. 

It was my good pleasure to meet General Williams in social, busi- 
ness, and official relations. I held him in highest esteem ; and always 
found him genial, pleasant, kind, warm-hearted, generous, and mag- 
nanimous — a splendid specimen of the true American gentleman, 
citizen, soldier, and official, the legitimate growth of our grand coun- 
try and unequaled and peculiar system of government. 



^DDRESs OF Mr. Plumb, of Kansas. 

Mr. President: The Senate appropriately rests from its ordinary 
employments to pay the last mournful tribute to an honored and 
lamented public servant. The State from which I come shares in 
the high appreciation with which the nation at large regarded the 
character and services of the late Representative, as well as in the 
universal sorrow which his death has occasioned. The infancy of 
Kansas was passed amid political turmoil and civil and military strife; 
her admission into the Union was contemporaneous with the com- 
mencement of that gigantic struggle in which the fate of the nation 
was long suspended as in a balance, and into which she entered with 
youthful ardor, but with matured and resolute purpose. For the 
prominent and successful leaders in that conflict no State cherishes 
a warmer admiration or a profounder sense of gratitude. The spoken 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 95 

names of the living and the recital of their patriotic achievements 
excite unbounded enthusiasm, while sorrow for the heroic dead is 
sincere and poignant. 

Another circumstance justifies me in participating briefly in these 
melancholy but grateful services. Events had thrown General Will- 
iams into intimate, I think I may truthfully add affectionate, asso- 
ciation with a considerable circle of citizens of my own State tem- 
porarily resident here — men some of whom have rendered conspicu- 
ous public service in field and in council, and all of whom testify in 
ardent terms to the singular integrity and sweetness of character 
and disposition that belonged to their dead friend. Through them I 
knew him only slightly, but their concurrent testimony left no room 
for doubt as to the value of those qualities which were illustrated 
throughout a long and active career as lawyer and magistrate, writer, 
soldier, and statesman. 

Mr. President, if we may not hope to escape the common destiny 
of the human race, we may reasonably indulge a choice as to the cir- 
cumstances and surroundings under and amid which the inevitable 
summons shall come to us. The man who falls upon the field of 
battle, offering up his life for his country and his convictions, leaves 
to his kindred and friends a precious heritage of patriotic and glorious 
memories as a solace to their affliction. The fame of the statesman 
who sinks beneath the burden of arduous and useful services in the 
national councils is affectionately commemorated by his late associ- 
ates amid the tearful sympathies of a whole people. It was the rare 
felicity of our late friend to discharge a great variety of public duties 
with scrupulous fidelity. Experienced in two wars and illustrious 
in one, he brought to the prosecution of his labors here mature years, 
ripened judgment, unquestioned purity of purpose; and his death 
leaves us an example of republican simplicity and sterHng elements 
of character well worthy of our admiration and imitation. 



96 ADDRESS OF MR. MAXEY ON THE 



^DDI^SS OF yVLR. yVlAXEY, OF TeXAS. 

Mr. President : The characteristics of every age may be gathered 

by the historian and political philosopher from the utterances of 

those who hold the public ear in that age. Ours I assume to be 

essentially materialistic. Material progress moves the statesman, the 

philosopher, and the citizen. It is an age in which the telegraph 

impresses itself. Thoughts must be presented in the fewest words 

consistent with clearness. No theory obtains recognition simply 

because it is presented or has the approval of men of recognized 

ability. It is judged upon its merits, and such merit must be proven 

by inexorable logic. The whole world has received impetus in 

thought and action from steam and telegraph, and the world moves 

as it never moved before. A man may play his part on the public 

stage and play it well. He is sent by his people to Congress. He 

receives their plaudits — dies — the sod closes over him — a brief eulogy 

is pronounced — and that is all and the last of him. The world rushes 

on. "The king is dead! Long live the king!" Well, he was a 

good man, poor fellow. Who will be his successor? Such is life; 

and of the grandest of them all, the American triumvirs, the history 

of each may be briefly written — 

But yesterday, the word of Csesar might 

Have stood against the world : now lies he there, 

And none so poor to do him reverence. 

This is a cold, hard age ; but for all that, underneath our selfishness 
there ts a warm place within our hearts for such a man as Alpheus 
S. Williams. 

I beg you. Senators, for a little while to listen to a recital of the 
good deeds of one late of our number, a good man now gathered to 
his fathers. General Alpheus S. Williams was no ordinary man. 
Quiet, unostentatious, unobtrusive, he was by force of merit kept 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS. 97 



almost constantly in important official position from early manhood 
to the close of a long and useful life. He was a man of culture. 
Graduating at Yale, and completing his course as a student of law 
at that university, he improved the years of early manhood by travel 
in Europe, acquainting himself with the political institutions and 
social organizations of the Old World, and was thus the better pre- 
pared to begin the great battle of life in democratic America. He 
settled in Michigan when twenty-six years of age, and entered upon 
the practice of law, in which he was eminently successful. 

In 1846 the war ensued between the United States and Mexico, 
and on the i8th day of October, 1847, he was enrolled as lieutenant- 
colonel of the First Michigan Volunteers. He served with his regi- 
ment from January to June, 1848, and was honorably mustered out 
of the service with it at Detroit in July of that year. General 
Williams thus began that military career in which he afterward 
became illustrious, and in that same school which, during the last 
war, furnished such splendid military genius and daring to the Federal 
and Confederate armies as made them famous throughout the world. 
Among the grand results of the Mexican war not the least are the 
military training and martial spirit it infused into the people. I had 
occasion once to say in an address to the veterans of that splendidly 
conducted war, unsurpassed in conduct and results, that " here the 
school opened which in two years turned out the best educated army 
in the science and practice of war the world ever saw." 

The alumni of this alma mater in the aftertime, from honest con- 
viction, espoused opposing sides, and conducted the war of giants 
on a scale of grandeur suited to the combatants, with a skill and 
courage unequaled in ancient or modern times, and with a fealty and 
devotion to the sides they espoused at once the badge of honor and 
brevet of manhood nobility. The true soldier, the world over, honors 
the man who is true to his principles. General Williams never for- 
got the comrades with whom he had served in Mexico. His speech 



13 ws 



98 ADDRESS OF MR. MAXEY ON THE 

to the veterans of Michigan at Kalamazoo, June 19, 1877, is a model 
of purity and of kindly feeling toward them. He was at his death one 
of the vice-presidents of the National Association of Veterans of the 
Mexican War, and had been so from the organization of that honor- 
able and influential society. 

When the great civil war began, General Williams, in April, 1861, 
was appointed by the governor of Michigan brigadier- general of the 
troops of the State. He commanded the camp of instruction near 
Detroit until September, 1861, when, having accepted the commission 
of brigadier-general in the United States volunteer service, he entered 
upon the active duties of that command. From October, i86i, till 
the last of July, 1865, he was continuously in command of a brigade, 
a division, or an Army corps on active service in the field. He 
received January 12, 1865, the brevet of major-general "for marked 
ability and energy." Having repaired to his home at Detroit to 
await the further orders of the government, he was called on the 25th 
of September following to the command of the Military District of 
Arkansas. He was honorably mustered out of the service January 
15, 1866. 

During his military service in the late civil war General Williams 
participated in fourteen different engagements; among them, the 
battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburgh, and he was 
also engaged in the campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas and on 
Sherman's " march to the sea." Such is a brief, unusually clear sketch 
from the military history of General Williams, for which I am 
indebted to the courtesy of General E. D. Townsend, Adjutant- 
General of the Army. But this sketch does not tell, no tongue nor 
pen can tell, of the long nights of his sleepless watchfulness, of the 
patient and untiring care for the health and comfort of the men of 
his command, of the dark days of gloom and despondency that 
burdened his stout heart during all these long and eventful years 
between the events of Sumter and Appomattox. He who was 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS- 99 

intrusted with command on either side best knows by his own 
experience. 

Happily for the country the grand and tragic events of that period 
have passed into history, and are remembered in bitterness no more 
by the true soldier, whether he wore the blue or the gray. General 
Williams was a noble type of the citizen soldeir. He was the soldier 
in war, the civilian in peace. Recognizing that the soldiers of the 
two great contending armies gave the highest evidence mortal man 
can give of the absolute sincerity of conviction, he esteemed it when 
the war was over his highest, as it was to him a pleasing, duty to 
exercise all his great influence to secure a real peace and fraternal 
union on a solid and enduring basis. To this end his energies were 
directed from the close of the war till his death, and that his efforts 
were appreciated I have but to remind the Senate of his great per- 
sonal popularity with his associates of the House of Representatives 
from every section of the Union and of every shade of politics. 

A Democrat of the strictest sect, he had the knightly courtesy of a 
cultured gentleman, who recognized in debate that honest men may 
honestly differ. A man of broad catholic though decided views, as 
a legislator he commanded the respect of all. Occupying the deli- 
cate and laborious position of chairman of the Committee for the 
District of Columbia, he gave universal satisfaction. The resolutions 
adopted by the people of the District at his death show their high 
appreciation of his character. One of those resolutions are in these 
words : 

Resolved, That as a patriot his example cannot die ; as a gentleman his character 
was without blemish ; as a soldier his glorious record will not be forgotten by his 
countrymen ; and as a citizen and legislator, always ready to recognize and perform 
his duties, his memory will be warmly cherished. 

I remember a few years ago the proposition for the reduction of 
the Army, while not in any proper sense a political question, had 
divided the House on nearly party lines. General Williams listened 



ADDRESS OF MR. MAXEY. 



to the appeals of the Democrats of my own State, and the accompished 
Democratic Delegate from the Territory of Montana, selected by the 
Territorial Delegates to champion their cause, pleading with Congress 
not to strip their people of their meager defense and expose the set- 
tlers along the frontier to Mexican banditti and the savage torch and 
scalping-knife of the Indian, and these appeals were not in vain. 
Firmly convinced of the justness of their cause, he followed his con- 
victions regardless of personal consequences, and I honored him for 
it, and esteem it a high privilege that I can pay even this poor tribute 
to his memory. 

One who made that appeal now sleeps his last sleep under the 
shadow of the Alamo, and General Williams, who came nobly to 
the rescue in the hour of need, rests peacefully on the banks of the 
river made classic by the heroes of 1812, and I, who wore the gray, 
shed a tear to the memory of him who in honor wore the blue. 

General Williams was one of those noble men, however much he 

may have deplored what in his heart he believed the misguided 

actions of those opposed to him, who did not forget that in Holy 

Writ it is said : 

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people : and they 
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks : 
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
more. 

He did not forget that the God of our fathers has promised — 

I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make 
them to lie down safely. 

Honor be to such a man as General Williams, wherever born or 
wherever reared! And as a Senator from the State of Texas, speak- 
ing for her people, whose dead heroes live in song and story, and 
whose sons honor heroic deeds and love heroic men, I offer this tribute 
to the memory of Alpheus S. Williams, whose mortal remains 
repose beneath the green turf of his own loved Michigan, and whose 
requiem is the wild music of her lakes. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. loi 

The Presiding Officer. The question is on the resolutions offered 
by the Senator from Michigan. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 

Mr. Maxey. Mr. President, as a further mark of respect for the 
memory of the deceased, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to ; and (at five o'clock and fifteen minutes 
p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 



March 3, 1879. 
The Speaker, by unanimous consent, laid before the House the 
following resolutions of the board of education of Detroit, Michigan, 
relative to the late Hon. Alpheus S. Williams ; which were read 
and laid on the table. 

City of Detroit, March i, 1879. 
Dear Sir: The undersigned inspectors of the board of education of the city 
of Detroit, in compliance with a resolution of said board, herewith transmit to you 
a copy of a tribute to the memory of the late Major-General Alpheus S. Will- 
iams, Representative in Congress from the first district of Michigan, adopted by 
said board and ordered entered of record on the journal of its proceedings. 
With great respect, your obedient servants, 

ROBT. E. ROBERTS, 
C. A. KENT, 

Special Committee. 
Hon. Samuel J. Randall, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

Major-General Alpheus S. Williams, Representative in Congress from the 
first district of Michigan, a former member of the board of education, and one of 
Detroit's most prominent, able, and useful citizens, who was identified with every 
interest promotive of the welfare of the city for the past forty-two years, suddenly 
departed this life while in the discharge of his duties in the city of Washington, 
December 21, 1878. A nation mourns the loss of one of the brave defenders and 
preservers of the Union^a hero gone; while his townsmen in the City of the 
Straits further deeply mourn the loss of a neighbor, friend, and companion, one 
who was ever faithful in the discharge of every trust confided to him ; who, whether 
as a captain of a local military company maintaining the neutrality of the govern- 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



eminent on this frontier in the " Patriot War" ; as lieutenant-colonel of the Michi- 
gan Regiment, participating in the war with Mexico, or corps commander in the 
war of the rebellion; as judge of probate for Wayne County ; as a member of the 
board of education; as recorder or alderman in the municipal council, or repre- 
sentative in the council of the nation — he did all things well. 

Death makes no conquest of this conqueror, 
For now he lives in fame, though not in life. 

As this city. State, and Union present durable monuments of the energy, pub- 
lic spirit, and patriotism, as well as constancy, devotedness, integrity, and fidelity 
in every official position he had filled, we record this memorial in justice to his 
memory, and as a most grateful tribute of sorrow and affectionate regard for one 
around whose name cluster associations of kindness, gentleness, generosity, chari- 
tableness, genial sociability, and all that go to mark the true gentleman. 

To the family and relatives of the deceased the board of education of the city 
of Detroit tender their sincere, deep sympathy in their great and irreparable 
affliction. 
Adopted by the board of education of the city of Detroit, January 13, 1879. 

ROBERT E. ROBERTS, 
JOSEPH NICHOLSON, 
WM. N. LADUE, 
JOHN DICK, 
FRANK FOLSOM, 

Special Committee. 
[SEAL.] F, MORRELL, President. 

Saml. E. Pittman, 
Secretary. 



"-N 



